A Rose By Any Other Name
by kes2
Summary: Hermione's home life isn't as peachy as everyone thinks. When all hope is gone, the most unsuspecting person becomes her saviour.REVISED AND UPDATED. ALMOST FINISHED TOO!
1. The End

**A Rose By Any Other Name.**

_By Kes._

**_Disclaimer:_** Harry Potter etc belongs to JKR, who apparently earns £77 per minute for just thinking of the idea, so I'm sure she won't mind little me and my story.

**_A/N:_** This is an edit of an old and unfinished story. It is now AU, as Albus is alive in my version. I wrote this a couple of years ago and many people enjoyed it, and had some changes for me to do, so now I'm going to try to finish it. I apologise for being so slow!

_This story is set before/during their seventh year; it has some dark themes and will eventually focus on a HG/SS relationship. If you have problems with any of what I have just said, please don't read this, I don't have time for flamers. For the rest of you, enjoy!_

Hermione never thought her life would end like this. Somehow, she had imagined dying heroically by Harry's side during a battle with Voldemort, or as an old woman eating far too much chocolate. Stupid really, considering what her life had been like before Hogwarts.

Sitting in a darkened room with only her own thoughts for company, Hermione was worried. She was becoming progressively colder and she thought that her vision was blurring around the edges.

"It hurts."

She whispered into the darkness half to herself, half in the vain hope that someone would hear her. From the deathly silence that was in the room, she knew that no one would. It was the kind of silence that only arrives once something terrible has happened, something so bad that even sound itself leaves afterwards, leaving a deafening silence.

The only trouble was that she had no idea what had happened. She knew that things at home had been building up to something like this, but having not experienced anything on quite this scale before; she was at a loss with how to cope with it.

Looking bad now, as she had nothing else to do before help hopefully arrived, it had all occurred so fast. It was a blur. A series of clear images all smudging into one big black, blue and purple mess - just like her body.

At this thought, she looked down into the darkness and saw her own fingers wiggling back at her. Her wand arm wasn't broken then, that was a relief. Her legs were hurting like mad, and she had a headache that even magic wouldn't cure, but she was alive for now. She started to cry. _Pathetic._ She thought. _I can't even stay sane._

Hermione knew that her parents had been having problems. Everyone did, right? No one's perfect. It had been this way ever since she could remember. Her parents would argue over the smallest thing. At first, it was over stupid things like who was going to cook dinner, then it escalated into full blow glass-throwing arguments about her dad's drinking. She despised drinking. Sometimes, he would leave for days.

After a while he started to turn on her, as though not satisfied with leaving his wife a quivering wreck, he would yell at a small eight year old Hermione for the most insignificant thing. Then he had started to hit.

Her life was only bits and pieces, she was sure she should be able to remember more of her childhood than she actually did. Most of the people she knew had anecdotes of their young lives, funny moments that happened, but her memory was a blank, pure and simple, and it scared her. All she could remember were the moments most similar to the situation she was in now, where she would end up a bloody and battered mess.

She remembered the relief she had felt when she received her Hogwarts letter. It was not only her saviour from such a life; it was an explanation, an excuse for the strange occurrences throughout her life. Most importantly, she thought as she was older, it explained her father….and at that thought, blackness hit her once again.

Only a few hours before, she had been sitting in her room re-reading 'Hogwarts a History; an updated Version', thinking how the next year at her beloved Hogwarts would be her last. For the past hour she had blocked out her parents yells, but they had now escalated to such a pitch that such skills were impossible to keep up.

Now however, she was worried. Now there was silence.

She went out of her room, waiting by the doorway as she had done when she was five. When the silence continued, she made her way down the stairs as quietly as she could but with the dreaded feeling that he knew she was coming anyway.

Silently, she opened the door to the front room ever so slightly and unfortunately recognised the sound she was hearing as it is one that one never forgets. When you have heard your fathers' fist pummelling relentlessly into your mothers defenceless flesh, you will never forget it. It was a sound that would reside in Hermione's soul forever. She whimpered slightly.

Managing to look beyond her parents, she saw that the curtains were drawn but that the lights were on. Briefly aware that their neighbours in their small cul-de-sac could most probably see and hear what was happening thanks to the shadow-parents on the curtains and the window being open, Hermione decided to try to help.

Now she opened the door fully, prepared to fight once and for all with her father, damning the consequences. However, as she looked into the darkened room, the scene was more horrific than the shouting had implied.

Now, her mother was half-lying on the sofa in a precarious position, half kneeling on the floor, with her back twisted at a strange angle in order to lean on the sofa for some kind of support. She was attempting to grab the lamp from the side table, keeping one eye on her assaulter, whilst he, her husband, was repeatedly punching, slapping, scratching her face and any other crevice of flesh he could get his hands on.

The look of pure and utter hatred on her father's face disturbed Hermione, even though she had seen it many times before aimed in her direction. This time it seemed different. Looking back, there had always been a sense of regret in her father's eyes. Now they were devoid of all life.

Suddenly and without thinking, Hermione crept behind her parents, neither one seeing her, and picked up the deep blue vase from the sideboard and slammed it down onto her fathers head, hoping in a fleeting moment to draw blood, until she realised that she was thinking like her father.

She felt sick. She had wanted to kill her father.

She dropped the vase in disgust and shrank by a few inches in horror of herself. She wanted to cry, she wanted to scream.

Suddenly she was aware that the vase had not had the desired affect and whilst her father had indeed been stopped, he was now getting back up and this time he was aiming for her. She vaguely heard words coming from his mouth, about her magic, her disgusting and unnatural talents, how she should have been kicked out all those years ago.

She could hear her mother crying, begging him to stop.

As though to spite his wife, he grabbed her by the t-shirt and hurled her against the wall. Hermione had no idea why he was doing this, why he was being _so _violent. What had happened tonight? What had been said? Why was he _this _angry?

She thought she heard the faint sound of a rib breaking, but it didn't hurt. Not that much. She was numb. She was on the floor.

Sobbing uncontrollably, Anne Granger begged her husband to leave their daughter alone, to come after her. Anne looked at Hermione, pleading, disturbed at the blank and expressionless face that stared into nothingness, as if Hermione's spirit had left her body, somehow trying to distance herself from the pain her body was enduring.

This look of nothingness concerned Anne more than anything else. She realised that her husband had finally broken their daughter's spirit and Anne realised that she wanted to die, she could not live with the guilt of that knowledge, that because of her cowardice, her daughter would suffer more than broken bones.

In the last moments, she saw her daughter being beaten by her own flesh and blood and she was helpless to stop it. Hermione didn't plead, she didn't beg, she didn't even look him in the eye and Anne was crying now, more than she had ever done before. Not because she was in pain – part of her knew that this was it for her – but because _she _had done this to Hermione.

The repetitious nature of his punches eventually numbed to a dull pain surrounding Hermione's entire body. As she slumped down the wall half conscious, she saw through bleary eyes her father turn to her sobbing mother. With an innate response, she attempted a last-ditch rescue mission. Wandless magic.

It was every Witch and Wizard's natural gift to be able to do some sort of weak wandless magic. After all, wands hadn't been around forever – despite what Olivander may claim. In their primitive existence with muggle, it was what had separated them.

And this was why Hermione's father hated her. He hated all magic-folk. They were abnormal, a minority, something that should be stopped.

Her right arm seemed to lift itself up and without thinking, she somehow knew what to do, as though her body was taking over. A faint green light emanated from her hand, and hit her father on the back. He collapsed onto her mother, who screamed and pushed him onto the floor.

Staring in shock at her father's body, she realised that she had just tried to kill him. Years of torment, anguish and pain were _not_ an excuse to try and _kill_ someone.

Struggling with the pain and the sound of her mother's hysteria, she made her way slowly to her father. He was not dead. He had a pulse, weak though it was. Relief and frustration entered her mind in an abrupt haze. Why wasn't he dead? No one could survive _it_. The spell must have worked as a comatose, instead of a killer. Her relief was short-lived as she heard an ambulance winding its way to somewhere. Her curiosity drew her towards the window. Half way there, she passed out.

Severus Snape was awoken at some un-godly hour in the morning by an irate Minerva McGonagall.

At another time of the day, the sight of the normally 'prim and proper' Minerva McGonagall with every single hair out of place, with a haggard expression about her features would have been extremely amusing.

There was only one problem; it was two in the morning.

"Severus. There's a problem - "

"I surmised that much Minerva. It's hardly likely you'd be in my chambers in your nightwear otherwise..."

"Shut up Severus!"

He raised an eyebrow but kept otherwise silent.

"The Ministry of Magic has detected under age magic. There have been signs of dark magic at the Granger household. Apparently, someone attempted to perform the 'Kedevra Curse'. We need you to go and see if there are any Death Eaters present. Now, I realise that you haven't been called for a long time, since Voldemort's death, but some of the renegade Death Eaters are attempting to reform. We thought we had all of them, but obviously not..."

It was obvious to Severus that Minerva was strained. Speaking so fast that it was a miracle Severus caught _any_ of what she said was a hint of that. Not only was Miss Granger her prized pupil, but he had a feeling that she had placed some, if not all, of her maternal instincts into helping the shy muggle-born girl flourish in a world that wasn't her own.

"Give me 5 minutes."

He walked quickly towards the gates of Hogwarts, so that he could apparate to the Granger residence. As he walked, he hoped that Miss Granger was all right. _She may be an insufferable little know-it-all, but even she doesn't deserve this._ He quickened his pace slightly as the gates became larger, and apparated.

He appeared just down the road from her address, in case any unsuspecting muggles were around - despite the early hour of the morning. As he walked towards her house, he saw that the door was slightly ajar. He sped up, went through the small squeaky gate and hesitantly opened the door.

"Miss Granger?"

There was no reply.

He went down the small hallway and to the left. The kitchen. He noted that it was quite neat, not including the piled up dishes set up to dry.

He moved slowly along the hallway, wand out, occasionally asking if anyone was there.

There wasn't.

Then he smelt it.

Blood. In the air.

He opened another door, and surveyed his new dismal surroundings. The sofa was at a peculiar angle, the curtains were dishevelled...

And there was a dead woman lying on the floor.

As he walked towards the corpse, he heard a slight whimpering sound. He turned, and saw Hermione curled up, hands wrapped around her knees, head buried on them, and she was crying slightly.

"Miss Granger? What happened here?"

She moved her head, and slowly looked up and him, eyes glazed slightly. It took her a few moments to focus in on who he was and what he was doing here.

"P-professor? Why are you here?"

Relief flooded through her, and she experienced a feeling close to euphoria. Then she panicked. _He has his wand out. Why does he have his wand out! It's pointing at mum - mum...she, she's dead! He killed her! And now, oh my god, he's going to kill me!"_

Severus watched the miniscule flicks of emotion suddenly cross her face - confusion, joy, confusion, and fear. She backed away from him, eyes lit up like a small deer, about to run into headlights. Then he heard her speak:

"Please, don't kill me, don't hurt my like you did my..." It was merely a whisper, but he heard every word.

"Miss Granger - Hermione - I assure you, I'm not going to hurt you. I did not hurt your-" He hazarded a guess " mother. She was like this when I arrived." He didn't want to say that the woman was dead - and by the looks of it, had been for at least an hour.

He walked slowly towards her, and she screamed hoarsely. Obviously, she had already done enough of that to last her a lifetime. He looked down to where her eyes were now fixated, and saw that she was staring intently at his wand. He knelt down, and placed it on the ground. "See? I'm not going to hurt you."

She looked at him warily and nodded slowly. "Okay."

He walked carefully towards her, as if on eggshells, and knelt down beside her. "Are you hurt?"

She burst out crying, and leaped on him, practically strangling him with the force of her hug. He was somewhat surprised that she would want to hug _him_, but nevertheless, rocked her slowly back and forth - not really knowing what else to do. In between her bouts of hysterical crying, and gentle sobs, he managed to comprehend the gist of what had occurred that night.

He then heard a sound behind them. Someone was getting up. _But her mother is dead. Who else is in the room? I've seen no one...her father..._

"Aww, now isn't this _sweet_. My darling little daughter with her wizard boyfriend. I always knew that you were a little slag. 'Going to the library' my arse." The contemptuous sound that passed for a voice was coming from Peter Granger. Severus felt Hermione freeze at the sound of his voice, and then start to shake slightly. Severus got up quickly and turned around, to see Mr Granger with Severus' wand in his hand. He relaxed somewhat. He was a muggle with a wand, it was like giving a child a piece of string and telling them to poke someone with it.

"Well well, let's see what the _muggle_ can do, now shall we? The tables have turned haven't they? Snape." Severus briefly wondered how the man knew his name, but then quickly dogged a pathetic attempt at a ricktasempra spell, surprised that he could even do magic. Apparently, Hermione had stopped telling her parents what spells she had learnt after her fourth year.

It was a fairly weak spell, with poor aim, so Severus managed to dodge it with no real effort. As the other man racked his brains for another spell to use, Severus did something that he hadn't done in a long time.

He punched him.

Again.

And again.

He kept punching until the man was on the floor, with a bloody nose. Peter got up, and yelled something, and punched him back. They fought for a few more minutes, until a flash of pale blue light emanated from the other side of the room. Both men stopped, and looked around. Hermione was standing, holding Snape's wand in the air. She then altered the trajectory of the wand, and aimed it squarely at her father.

"This spell may not have worked last time, but I promise you, it'll work now. You killed my mother. I feel as though I should _repay_ the _favour_." Although her voice was laced with sarcasm, it was disturbingly calm.

"No Miss Granger, don't!"

Hermione blinked, and looked at Severus, who quickly turned and punched the other man one last time, as her father again fell, and lay there sprawled unceremoniously on the floor.

As Severus massaged his bruised knuckles, Hermione walked over to the body of her dead mother, and checked for a pulse in vain. She already knew that she was dead, but there was still a small glimmer of hope within Hermione that at least part of her world would still be in tact.

It wasn't.

She felt Severus' hand upon her shoulder, as he delicately took back his now frazzled wand - it had been affected by other people using it - and whispered something incomprehensible in Latin towards her mother. Her mothers head began to glow a pale green, and the light transcended downwards, covering the other parts of her body systematically. Occasionally, another part of her body would glow an ominous colour, and Severus involuntarily took in a sharp breath.

"Your mother died of internal bleeding. I guess that she'd have been in no real pain as she would have been unconscious at the time of her death." This was a slight lie, as he surmised that she would've been in agony until the pain caused her to pass out. But Hermione didn't need to know that right now.

Perhaps never.

_It'll be a miracle if she's sane after all this. It's too much. The children were all supposed to be safe after Voldemort's demise...but her father, he used magic..._


	2. A New Beginning

**A Rose By Any Other Name.**

_By Kes._

**_Disclaimer: _** As ever, Harry Potter doesn't belong to me.

They arrived at Hogwarts roughly an hour later. Hermione had not said much since she realised that her mother was gone forever.

They had left her father unconscious on the floor, but Severus had phoned the police (after Hermione showed him how to use the pay phone down the street). He pretended to be a 'concerned neighbour calling about the welfare of the occupants of the house'. Hermione smiled a little as she heard him say this. He was trying to be as muggle as possible, and it _was_ a step up from Ron's "HELLO IS HERMIONE THERE?" Although, now she thought about it, his voice _was_ slightly elevated...

She had sat there, by her mother's body, for at least ten minutes. By the time she looked up, she realised that Snape had gone. She began to panic. She was alone, she didn't want to be alone with her father, conscious, or not. Her breath came in short, rapid breaths, and a little bit of sweat was formulating on her brow. Then she heard someone cursing quietly upstairs.

It was like deja-vu, she shuddered and instantly clamped her hands over her ears, silently begging them to stop.

"Miss Granger. What are doing?" The normally patronising and degrading voice seemed to be concerned.

"I heard you cursing upstairs. I guess it was...a little too familiar..." She whispered the last part, as if afraid of criticism. When she realised what had been implied, she cleared her throat and looked away. "What were you doing up there anyway?" She inquired suspiciously, giving him a sideways glance.

"I was gathering up your school things, do you wish to collect any other...personal... belongs?" He raised an inquisitive eyebrow.

"Er, yes, yes I think I will. After all, I doubt that I can come back here again. I think I should take something's of my mothers. In case _he_ takes them." She cast a disgusted glance at her father. She shuddered involuntarily.

Determinedly, she looked him in the eye. "What will happen now, sir?"

"I'm not sure Miss Granger. I'm not familiar with muggle police systems. We will go back to Hogwarts, and consult Professor Dumbledore."

The first thing that happened when they arrived was Madame Pomfrey bustling around, telling Severus to let her do her job. He protested, not allowing her to throw him out of the Hospital Wing, stating that Hermione was in an unstable condition and no one should be left alone with her.

Hermione lay on the bed not moving a muscle. She couldn't, even if she had wanted to. She just wanted to stay exactly where she was forever. Poppy healed her wounds with a multitude of spells and charms. Her ribs were still sore, and she had one hell of a black eye, one to make a sailor proud, but she still had the disgusting taste of a number of potions in her mouth.

To her memory, she had taken a General Healing potion, a Pepper-Up potion, some Skelegrow for her left arm and one of her ribs, a Cleansing potion to somehow take all impurities such as excess blood and foreign objects out of her system, a potion with a complicated name that had some disgusting pus in it, and finally a dreamless sleep draught. Why she had had a pepper up _and_ a sleep draught, she didn't know. Nor did she care.

_Six potions in one sitting, that must beat Harry's record..._ she mused morbidly to herself, wondering when the sleeping draught was going to kick in.

Now she was lying huddled in a ball in the hospital wing, hoping that she would never have to tell anyone what her 'life' was like. She did _not_ want them to know. Hell, _she_ didn't want to know. And she knew for definite that she did not want their pity.

Her mind whirled with a million questions. _What's going to happen to my mum? Will I go to the funeral? What'll happen to dad? If he goes to court, will I have to give evidence? What's going to happen to the house? I can't believe this has happened. Oh my god. _

_I'm so alone._

Her thoughts were interrupted by Madam Pomfrey coming to check on her - again - with yet another potion/spell/book to read. _I'm sure these potions have nothing in them; I haven't fallen asleep yet..._

Madam Pomfrey was saying something, but she couldn't quite tell what, so she just winged it and gave her a weak smile.

"That's my girl."

She grimaced internally. _Well that was easy. I hope that works on everyone._

Hermione had not said much since her dramatic arrival back at Hogwarts. Part of her was just too tired. Another part never wanted to talk again.

Madam Pomfrey stayed with Hermione that night, having managed to force Snape back to his own rooms; she sat on the chair by Hermione's bed until she fell asleep, somehow sensing the young girl's reluctance to be left alone.

The next morning, Professor Dumbledore came to see Hermione. He asked no questions about what had happened the night before. _Obviously Snape's filled him in_. She was glad for that. But he also did not ask her anything about what happened prior to last nights events. Hermione was thankful.

_I don't think I know that myself._

"I need to discuss with you your use of …an Unforgivable…it was traced by the ministry, dear, Severus told me nothing." He said, in response to her look of indignation. "However, they now know what happened at your house and the fact that he…killed…your mother. I'm working on getting you out of a possible court appearance. Don't worry, Cornelius knows how to play Quidditch, as they say…" He remained quiet for a minute, hoping she would say something, but Hermione was mute.

"Now, I went to see the police this morning, explaining that I was your Headmaster - "

Hermione sat wide-eyed, mouth gaping open, as if she were about to say something.

"Don't worry dear; I said that it was a boarding school slightly north of London." He paused. "I just didn't say how far north." His eyes twinkled as he was rewarded with a small but genuine smile from Hermione, but still no words. "Anyway, I explained to them that you were staying with us as you have no other family to stay with -"

The rest of what he said to her was blocked out. She had not thought of that.

Hermione was an only child, as were her parents. Her Grandparents on her mother's side had died before she was born, and her father's mother died when she was four, and her grandfather when she was six.

She was alone.

In the wizarding world.

All alone.

With hardly any money.

Dumbledore noticed that she had gone off into her own world when he had said she had no other family. Unfortunately, it hadn't occurred to him that Hermione had not yet thought of that. Although, he of course did not mind that her mind had wandered off, he thought she was going to yell at him, or something, anything. But she didn't say a word.

Minutes passed by, when she finally looked up, eyes focused and a little teary. "What will happen to my father?" She asked, voice groggy, as if she had just woken up. Dumbledore noticed the sound of distaste and disgust at the word 'father', but tried to ignore it.

"He was taken into police custody early this morning after the 'anonymous phone call' they received, and has been charged with manslaughter. I believe that due to the evidence in your house and statements from your neighbours, he will most likely plead guilty and so the trial should be shift."

Hermione's eyes lit up angrily. "'Manslaughter'! That 'man' _killed_ my mother! It was no accident…I can assure you, he knew _exactly_ what he was doing..." She stopped just as suddenly as she had started. She had almost told him. Almost.

She refused to cry. Hermione was so angry, she did not know what to do or say. So instead she said nothing. Instead, she grabbed the pillow off the bed and pounded it repeatedly and finally threw it against the far wall, exhausted.

Professor Dumbledore remained silent.

After her little 'outburst' in the infirmary, she asked if she could go on a walk to clear her head. Professor Dumbledore agreed. "You've got an hour. I want you to be back by then please." His eyes sparkled, and although Hermione knew it sounded like a request, she knew better than to disagree with him.

Her walk was rather uneventful. Mercifully, she had managed to miss the other teachers who were still here despite it being the summer months, although she had a sneaking feeling that Professor Dumbledore had something to do with that. There was something eerie about an empty school, no children around. The feeling of loneliness suddenly dawning on her, Hermione quickened her pace.

As Hermione walked quickly back to the Hospital Wing - she had five minutes left until her 'curfew' - she contemplated her reasoning.

She thought about it, repeated what had happened again and again in her mind, and still, she had no idea what had possessed her to pour her heart out, to Snape, of all people!

He had to be the most patronising person on the planet, but still, she had done it anyway, and there was nothing she could do about it...

Briefly, the thought of a potion or spell to alter his memory flitted through her mind, only to be pushed aside once again as she chastised herself for thinking of doing that to a teacher.

There was a nervous knock on the door. Anyone without Severus' acute hearing would have probably missed it. Perhaps that was what Hermione had wanted. At least that way, she would have been able to say 'Well, I _did_ _try_ to speak to him'.

"Come in."

_Damn, that man has good hearing._

Hermione opened the door ridiculously slowly; the usual creaking absent due to her careful nature.

"Sir? Can I...speak to you please?" She suddenly realised he was grading papers and wondered what on earth he could be marking this far into the summer. This was forgotten, however, as soon as they made eye contact and she felt fear rise in her throat as though she were eleven again.

Snape raised an eyebrow. "Regarding?"

This was both an improvement and also incredibly stupid on his part.

_What do you think? My mother is dead, and my father's being charge, but I just wanted to ask you something about my god-damn NEWTS..._

She had expected something along the lines of 'no, go away you silly girl'. But as ever, Snape lived to disappoint.

_Why the hell am I here!_

She inhaled deeply. "Regarding the circumstances of my premature arrival back at Hogwarts." That had taken her a while to think up whilst lying in bed in the Hospital Wing, as she tried to make it sound as formal as possible, trying to eliminate any form of emotion from her voice.

He actually looked surprised.

Under any other circumstances, she would have smirked at the idea of _him_, ex-_death eater_ and feared Potions _master_ being surprised. But not right now. At this moment, it passed her by. It was only in retrospect did she notice his momentary lapse in his facade. Or perhaps she had added it to the memory, to make him more human.

"Follow me." He rose from his seat behind his desk, and walked to the right, by the bookcase. Well, it _was_ a bookcase, until you walked near it. Then it was a passageway. Funny, she could not remember seeing that here before. Perhaps it was new…

She followed him down the short passageway until they came upon a door.

His office.

"Please, sit down." She did as she was told, whilst surveying her new surroundings. Everything was dark green, _naturally, _she mused.

He stood with his back to her, apparently making some sort of beverage – she assumed it was tea – and she wondered why he was being so civilised to the know-it-all. He turned around with a cup in his hand, something she never thought she would see in her lifetime.

As she sipped the tea that he had silently offered her, Hermione looked down at her cup, attempting to swallow the tears that were welling up inside her, and also her pride. She had to tell someone, and Snape seemed like a logical choice: he had been there, seen what had happened, so she wouldn't have to tell him the whole story.

Finally she looked him in the eye, once again she felt something like fear wash through her, his eyes were far too intense for her right now. "I don't know how to say this without sounding like a madwoman, or a loser, or perhaps both, so I'm just going to blurt it out and say it. Ok?" She stopped talking and focused on his face and saw him nod curiously, signifying that she should continue.

"Alright, er, well, you already know that I've been 'abused' at home." She looked at him, grateful that she did not see pity in his eyes, only curiosity. She pushed the tears down that were trying to come up to the surface yet again and now refused to look him in the eye.

"I guess that the logical place I should start at is the beginning." She said, half to herself.

"Yes, that would seem 'logical' Miss Granger." As he yet again raised his eyebrow, she thought he looked like Spock – she doubted he would be impressed with such an analogy. She smiled inwardly.

"Ok. I guess my life's sort of always been like this." She pointed at her black eye. "Only, on the inside."

At his puzzled look, she carried on.

"Ok, so that wasn't the best way to describe it. A bit too…twee." She cleared her throat. "My father used to...call me names. I, I know...that sounds stupid, but imagine being an eight year old child, scared to death because you keep exploding things and levitating things without knowing why, having few friends, already being naturally - almost painfully - shy, and having your father telling you that you're a piece of worthless shit all the time." She looked down at her cup of tea and sipped it quietly, not knowing where else to go.

"Then imagine coming home from school early one day because of a teachers strike, and seeing your parents arguing so much that your father slaps your mother across the face, and coming after you. I was only ten." She paused, and looked up at him, her voice wobbling only slightly. "Ten, when he first hit me. Before all that, it was just names, but then I saw what happened to mum. So now, it's my turn."

Her eyes clouded over, as if recalling a memory and Severus had a feeling that she was quoting the bastard that somehow passed as a father. He kept silent, deciding to let her carry on and get this all out. Briefly he wondered why she had decided to tell him and not Minerva. Not that he particularly minded.

"When I got the letter from Hogwarts, I showed it to mum first. She was thrilled. We went to get all my school stuff from Diagon Alley, and came back to find my father with the letter in his hand.

He had new ammunition. Now I _really was_ a freak. He had been proven right by people he never knew even existed. All through the holidays, he kept hitting me, and calling me names. I think the names were the worst part, because I couldn't prove it to anyone.

The reason why I was such a 'know-it-all' when I came here, was because I wanted to prove to everyone that I _could _do it. I _was_ intelligent. I _wasn't_ a freak. I wanted people to like me for who I was. I didn't want to fear anyone, not even Voldemort. Obviously, he scared me at first, but I figured that all he could do was kill me. That's it. And what's so wrong with dying?

The only people who fear death are those who've got something to live for. I didn't. And I still don't.

It didn't occur to me for a few weeks that my mother was still there. At home. With _him_. She sent me letters, and it seemed as if things were calming down. When I went home for Christmas, he was nice. When I went home, he was always nice.

That's what scared me.

It's like being in the room with a bomb, waiting for it to go off, but not knowing how to activate or deactivate it. If you make one wrong move, one wrong sound, boom!

You're dead. Or worse.

No one's ever seen the bruises I've had, I _still_ have...I've become increasingly good at masking charms over the years. I learnt it in my first year - another of my books from the library.

The bruises were everywhere, but rarely on my face. People would see. He knew I was too embarrassed to shows people the others. My wrist hurt for a few weeks at the beginning of each year, it's like a tradition. Thank god we have long summer holidays. I couldn't risk too much magic at home, so I had to have a horrible bulky cast. Each year, almost as soon as I got home, he'd have a new and 'interesting' way to injure my wand arm, each year worse than the proceeding one. It was like that's all he thought about for an entire year.

Then he'd try to be nice to me. As soon as he broke the wrist, he'd feign remorse. He did have the occasional slip, he'd yell at me, and once or twice, mainly for no real reason, and I'd stupidly yell back. He threatened not to let me come back here. I pointed my wand at him. He said he'd seen the letter saying that I wasn't allowed to do magic. I said to him that he wasn't allowed to hurt me, but he did, so rule-breaking must be a family thing. I did a simple petrificus spell two years ago, on Crookshanks poor little guy, to prove it to him. The ministry didn't notice, they had Voldemort to handle. And now I'm alone."

She finally took a breath, and noticed that she had somehow finished her tea. Hermione suddenly realised that Snape hadn't said a word. Now she felt like an utter fool, she ahd just opened up to the one man who would never give a damn unless she put the sorting back on her head and it shouted "Slytherin!". She looked up finally, trying to wipe a tear away casually and saw Snape staring at her intently.

Once again she abruptly broke the eye contact, looking down at the floor. "Ok, since I've got that off my chest, I'll leave you in peace."

She hastily got up to leave, cheeks burning bright red in embarrassment - she hadn't meant to tell him that much. She put down the cup and turned around.

"Miss Granger..."

She turned back slowly, avoiding his eyes. "Yes?" She asked, in a quivering voice, trying desperately not to fall onto the floor into a ball of tears.

"You're not alone."


	3. Something To Live For

**A Rose By Any Other Name.**

_By Kes._

**_Disclaimer: _** As ever I own nada.

Looking back, Hermione was not sure if Snape had meant that she could rely on him, or her friends, or the Wizarding world in general…right now she found herself hoping that he meant she could rely on him.

One reason for relying on her usually surly professor was that he was _here _in Hogwarts, and the 'terrible twins' (name courtesy of Fred and George - ironically) were somewhere watching the Quidditch World Cup and had no idea about her home life.

Anyway, as much as she loved Harry and Ron- and she did - they were hardly the most compassionate people in the world. As soon as you mentioned the words 'Quidditch', 'sex', 'Veela', or somehow a strange chauvinistic combination of all three, getting their attention was as likely as finding a History of Magic lesson interesting.

She needed someone who was mature enough to help her, without mumbling incoherently, but not pity her, and hold her when she needed to be held - the thought of Snape cuddling her flitted through her mind and she found it rather funny.- without expecting sex afterwards.

She needed a man.

Hermione giggled alone in the dark infirmary. She was now back in bed in her temporary home, but apparently not alone: Madame Pomfrey poked her head out of her office. "Are you okay dear?"

"Are you alright dear?" she said again, as Hermione failed to respond the first time.

Hermione nodded, not trusting herself to answer verbally, giggles bubbling up inside her. She was becoming hysterical.

_God, one little one-liner and I'm hysterical. It must be the stress or something...at least I hope so._

"Well, if you need anything, just let me know."

She barely suppressed her smile, let alone laugh. _I can see it now...'Yes, Madam Pomfrey, can you look for a man for me please?' I doubt she'd be able to do that...although, she does spend a lot of time with Professor Dumbledore...eww, no Hermione, no! DO NOT go there!_

Momentarily she wondered what the hell was wrong with her, she had just suffered from an incredible loss and was recovering from a traumatic experience and here she was laughing. She shook her head in disbelief. She really was hysterical.

With her silent laughter finally subsiding, Hermione tried to sleep, ignoring the words from inside her head of her father's voice: "You _stupid_ insolent little pig ignorant bitch! You'll never amount to anything at that freakish school." It was just a memory, but she willed the voice to stop, finally crying herself silently to sleep.

Early the next morning, Hermione awoke to Madame Pomfrey's smile beaming down at her. "Come on now dear, time for breakfast!"

Hermione looked around expectantly. "Where is it?"

"In the Great Hall."

Her brow creased. "Ok..." Not sure she quite liked where this conversation was heading.

"Well, I think you're well enough to do to breakfast. I don't think you need Dobby to bring it to you. Come on now, we don't want to be late."

Hermione was suddenly incredibly nervous. She would have to face the teachers, all of them, at the same time, in a room that was usually occupied by the entire student body. Not only that, but she realised that Dumbledore must have given them _some _reason for her being here. Here being the Infirmary, she had not left it sinced she came, not including her little humiliating walk down to see Snape. _Oh god oh god…_Snape.

She would have to see him. _Oh my god._

"Who else is going to be there?" Hermione asked as casually as she could, whilst she rose to her feet, looking for her wand to cast a cleansing spell and cringing at the crumpled pile of material that were in some previous existence known as 'Hermione's clothes'.

"I imagine Albus, Minerva - " Hermione crouched down to pick up her hair-tie and raised an eyebrow - _she's using their first names. Isn't that supposed to be a stupid breach of some sort of ancient protocol?_

"Oh, and of course Sybil - she comes down from her perch in the tower during the holidays - " Poppy smiled at Hermione. The entire staff knew that Hermione did not get on with Professor Trelawny - _that's putting it mildly, the girl hates her!_ Poppy mused, and they liked her all the more for it.

"Then there's March, Remus - he's teaching DADA again this year, first one that's been here for two consecutive years - Severus will be there in body at least, he rarely speaks. He's not exactly a morning person."

The rest of Madame Pomfrey's commentary on the 'guest list' was lost on Hermione. She just focused on what had happened last night. _Has he told anyone? He wouldn't do that, would he? He's not that bad... anyway, I hope not, I couldn't face that. It's going to be hard enough to look him in the eye as it is without the fact that everyone could know about my 'colourful' past hanging over my head._

As they arrived in the Great Hall, Hermione could feel every pair of eyes on her - except one, Sybil Trelawny - mentally assessing her physical and mental state. All wondering what the hell she was doing here.

Sybil was the first one to 'break the ice'. Looking up from her tea leaves from her now empty cup, she said in an overly-loud and incredulous voice: "What on earth is a student doing at school during the holidays?"

Apparently, she either had 'third-eye block', was incredibly stupid, or no one had had the foresight to tell her why Hermione was here. Possibly it was a combination of all three.

A hushed tense silence filled the Hall. No one wanted to inform Sybil in front of Hermione. Out of the corner of her eye, Hermione saw McGonagall giving Dumbledore a dirty look, whilst his face definitely had the quality about it of someone who had just remembered that they had forgotten to do something incredibly important.

Hermione blushed and her still-black-eye felt like it suddenly had its own pulse. She wanted so badly to just scream. She shuffled her feet a little, waiting for someone to come to her rescue. Apparently, so was everyone else.

Sybil, meanwhile, was completely oblivious. "Is she here on some sort of programme? I must say, Albus, you should _tell_me ofsuch things, then I would be able to prepare…" She muttered this more to herself than anyone, but still keeping an eye on Hermione, as though the young woman was about to pounce on her.

"Didn't you see my arrival in your crystal ball? Is my name too long to be spelled out in tea leaves?"

There was a stunned silence surrounding the room, not including the unflattering spluttering sound coming from Trelawney's direction. All but Snape looked shocked. Actually, he looked what could pass from him as 'happy' - In a sardonic way. The closer she looked at Professor McGonagall, the more convinced she was that her Head of House was suppressing a smirk.

The look of indignation on Sybil's face seemed to enrage Hermione to what even she could see was a preposterous level. However, she did not want to analyse her feelings at the present time, and so instead let her muse take her.

"Really, you are the supposed 'psychic' of the group, or perhaps your only talent is trying to kill off The Boy Who Lived…What's the matter? Didn't you get any premonitions about the _murder_ of my _mother_?" Hermione screamed the last part of the sentence at a quivering Sybil. She knew logically that the woman could not have known –the old fraud that she was – but Hermione was incapable of stopping herself.

"There is one thing you could do for me. Will my father get off? Or will he get life? Or perhaps you can only predict the lottery numbers -" At this she was positive that she saw Dumbledore unwillingly snort tea out of his nose – who had ever heard of a rich witch?

Hermione's eyes were glowing angrily, all of it aimed irrationally at the one teacher who Hermione had little respect for. But the fire in her eyes was being quelled by the bristling tears threatening to overflow. She looked menacingly at Sybil, so much so that when Minerva glanced at Severus, it looked as though he was about to embrace the young girl from the pride that was - almost - evident on his features.

Meanwhile, Sybil was somewhat distraught. She stood up. "Well, I...I mean, I didn't know, I don't, I don't deserve this kind of treatment! I honestly didn't know what happ-"

" 'don't deserve this kind of treatment' ! Oh, and I did, did I? To be cursed from the day I was born to have some sort of manic freak that somehow passed the test as my father!"

She stopped abruptly. _I'm becoming my father. _ She was shouting at an innocent person and part of her liked it. She was becoming exactly like her father and it scared her. She stopped talking and stood there like an idiot, cheeks blazing, eyes blurring and started to breathe slowly in, out, in, out. She closed her eyes and concentrated on her breathing. Tears fell down her face but she ignored them, her body started to shake but she ignored that too, hoping the others would. In what she thought was the distance she could hear Sybil still raving about the injustice of it all and she wished the stupid would just _shut up!_

"Come now dear, it's time for you to have some breakfast" Poppy said in a gentle voice, whilst simultaneously fixing everyone at the table - including Albus - with an icy glare.

Hermione self-consciously wiped her scarlet face with her sleeve and shuffled slowly forward. Unbeknownst to her, Poppy was behind her, looking pleadingly at Albus and Minerva who instantly started conversation with each other rather loudly.

Sybil quietly munched on her toast, feeling her colleagues eyes on her, even though they were not looking at her. She was most grateful to Remus when he struck up some irrelevant conversation with her about owls.

Soon after, the uncomfortable events from only a few moments before were conveniently forgotten, and people started to have genuine conversations. Hermione, however, stayed quiet.

Breakfast had soon ended, and people were beginning to drift away from the table - Sybil with Albus and Minerva, presumably to be informed of the latest 'events'.

Poppy turned to the self-conscious young witch beside her: "You know Hermione, if you want to talk to someone just ask -"

Hermione inhaled...

"- don't interrupt! None of us can really comprehend what happened to you - except perhaps Severus - "She said, mainly to herself. "Anyway, you really should talk to someone..."

"Oh, I already have, but thank you anyway." She replied, her voice barely above a whisper.

Looking at Madame Pomfrey, Hermione smiled nervously. She turned and headed in the direction of her haven - the library, whilst wondering why on earth Severus Snape would understand what had happened to her.


	4. Goodbye Mum

**A Rose By Any Other Name.**

_By Kes._

**_Disclaimer:_** I don't own anything, not even a good internet connection.

Hermione sat in an old chair opposite the main desk in Dumbledore's office, nervously sucking on a rather sharp sherbet lemon. The usual twinkle had gone from the old man's eyes, and his expression was a little more haggard than normal. Hermione grimaced inwardly, as that was never a good sign.

It had been a week since Hermione's outburst in the Great Hall. Sybil Trelawney had been informed of Hermione's situation and had been sickeningly simpering towards her ever since. Hermione still had to sleep in the infirmary, due to her nightmares which were always the same and the feeling of utter powerlessness overtook her during the daytime as well. Much to the annoyance of Hogwarts' Potions master, the dreamless sleep potion he had personally made was having no effect.

Since her unfortunate outburst in the Hall, she had not spoken to said potions master. However, the look of adoration – that was what she had decided it was – when her tirade began was now frozen in her memory. He regularly asked her how she was at mealtimes. True, he did not come to visit her, but then again neither had anyone else, really. They had decided to leave her alone lest they be next on her list.

What was most upsetting to Hermione was the fact that she was not allowed back into her house until the end of her father's hearing. Her own home was a crime scene. The thought alone kept her awake at night; her childhood residence, home to her few and far between happy and genuine memories was now evidence in a murder investigation. Suddenly CSI was not such a good TV show any more.

And that is why she is in Dumbledore's office, sitting in a lumpy but deceptively comfortable chair. She was scared, and nervously bit her bottom lip.

Dumbledore looked at her over the rim of his glasses, a kindly expression on his face when he inhaled deeply and began to speak. "We shall discuss who is to be your legal guardian for the muggle world at a later date, but right now I have something else which needs to be discussed. I've organised the funeral, only a few details left to sort out, the flowers and such that I felt were best left up to you. I checked with the coroner. They said you could have the...body...back. They've got all the...er, evidence...that they need." He smiled slightly at her, and placed his hand on hers that was on the table.

She nodded, looking at the floor, trying to hide her tear-filled eyes and he handed her a tissue.

_Damn him._ She thought, dabbing her eyes silently.

"I've got a brochure from the flower shop. I had to go and collect it; it would've seemed strange if I asked them to owl it to me!" His attempt at humour was rewarded with a weak smile.

"I'm afraid that I'm still not used to those non-moving pictures, as much as I like muggles…Here-". He handed her the book. "Have a look, see if there's anything that you like."

"Are there any with lilies? Or perhaps freesias? Those were her favourite. In a heart shape - do they do shapes? Never mind, I'll have a look." She looked in the book, flicking the pages rapidly as she did so, sherbet lemon now forgotten.

Dumbledore noticed that she was talking to both him and herself. After a few minutes of the paper rustling, he heard her exclaim:

"That's it! It's perfect! It's just what I want. Oh, there aren't any freesias..." She said, disappointed.

"I'm sure they'll add them on dear, not to worry. I'll ask them. Anyway, we must sort out who is to be told. Who do you want to come? You mentioned earlier this week that your mother was an only child?" Hermione nodded. "Well, did she have any friends that you wish to invite?"

"Yes, she did. Most of them are dentists, like her and, and...er, well. Could you contact them? I really don't want to, well, you know, tell them how she, er, died. She gave me an address book last year. I'm sure I've got it somewhere.

He smiled gently at her and nodded. "Certainly my dear, I understand. Well then, I'll set a date for...Friday? That'll give you three days to prepare yourself. Now I understand that this is a private matter, but I would feel more comfortable with a member of staff going with you to ensure that you are safe. I don't want you to fall ill. Who would you like to come with you?"

"Can I think about it Professor?"

"Of course my child, of course."

Three days later, Hermione, Professors Dumbledore, McGonagall and Snape were on their way to a muggle funeral.

Although this was not how she saw herself at her mother's funeral – she was a few decades too young for a start – she was glad these three were with her. Professor Dumbledore had helped her sort things out, Professor McGonagall was her Head of House. As for Snape? He had saved her life, and she had begun to feel the need to rely on him.

Her mother was to be cremated. Hermione had to decide that for herself due to the lack of directions by her mother, but she felt that this was the only way her mother could truly rest in peace without all the wounds he had left her with.

Speaking of 'him', her father was nowhere to be seen. He had asked his lawyer to send flowers with a card. The message was never read, as Hermione set fire to them as soon as she set eyes on them, earning herself an appraising look from Severus. She had almost smiled until she realised why she was there.

It was a small service, with a few friends of her mother there, all of whom knew how her mother had died, or as much as they needed to know. They knew he had killed her, but they would never know the background to the story.

Hermione had to say a few words. She wanted to, but was worried she would let her mother down. She had decided to stretch the truth a little. But to her, as long as the words 'loving' and 'husband' never came across one another, it was alright. Now was neither the time nor place to bring hatred. It's not what her mother would have wanted. At the signal, Hermione rose slowly and hesitantly began to speak:

"All of you knew my mother. I know for a fact that all of her work colleagues, she considered good friends. She died tragically at the wrong place in time, for it was not her time to go. However, we must not question the judgement of almighty above, and accept what life has dealt us, and begin to move on. This, I know is what she would have wanted.

We must remember her for her kindness, her skill, and most of all, her bravery. Let that _never_ be forgotten." She looked slowly around the room. "It is said that a parent should never have to see their child die, I say it goes both ways. Although I saw her life end, I will remember, she saw my life begin. And for that, I will be forever thankful.

I love you mum. I wish you didn't have to go and leave me, but if you're happier now, then so be it.

She's left us in mind and body, but not in spirit. She shall always be there, for all of us, whether we want her to be or not. She'll be as stubborn now, as always, telling us to 'wrap up warm' or make sure we sleep enough. She may not say it, but ours memories of her will echo in our minds always, as this is all we have left of her legacy.

I love you mum."

She had managed to make it through her small speech without crying, her eyes welling up slightly as she thought of her mother. Finally all the memories she had tried to repress the past week or so were coming up to the surface at full speed. She sniffed slightly and dabbed her eyes. Walking back to her seat she began to cry.

Without a word, barely a movement, she received a small black handkerchief with the initials SS embroidered into it in fine silver thread.

"Thank you". She whispered.


	5. Lean On Me

**A Rose By Any Other Name.**

_By Kes._

**_Disclaimer:_** Nope, still don't own the Harry Potter universe.

Hermione's address book was still in Professor Dumbledore's over sized pocket along with a variety of sweets, both muggle and magical and was making itself quite at home. She was supposed to get it today but no one had seen her yet and so in his pocket it stayed.

Hermione had had the address book for about a year. It was a battered old leather book with an elastic band keeping in some of the more used pages. Her mother had given it to her the year before in case she ever needed to contact anyone. Part of Hermione suspected that her mother could tell how much danger she was in and it saddened the young witch. Hermione had kept it knowing that at home there was the risk of it being 'lost' by her father, but promised to give it back at some point. She had left it in the very bottom of her suitcase for a while. Dissatisfied with that, she had shrunk it and placed it inside her magically-bound diary which was always close by her. Safe.

The day after the funeral Hermione was very down, as was expected and so it was decided that the Hogwarts staff would give her some space to mull things over. However, when she failed to reappear by dinnertime they began to worry.

"Someone should go and find her, Albus." Minerva stated, in a worried tone as they sat not eating their dinners.

He put down his still-clean fork. "Yes, I agree Minerva, I thought a little time to herself would do her good, but if she's not eating, then something must be done. Minerva, as her Head of House, I think you should go."

Minerva nodded in agreement but then her face saddened. "I'd like to Headmaster, but we've both got the meeting with Fudge in a few minutes, regarding Hermione's guardian in our world and that of the muggles, as well as that discussion we must have over the repercussions of her illegal use of magic outside of school."

"Ahh yes, I'd forgotten about that. I must be getting on in years, my memory's not as it used to be." There was a twinkle in his eye as he laughed gently.

Severus felt two pairs of eyes rest upon him. He had been waiting for this ever since he realised that no one else was coming to dinner. Clearly he had not been informed of something. The dining table suddenly got a lot smaller.

Cautiously, Severus looked up and raised an eyebrow at their expectant glances. "Why don't you take a picture, it'll last longer." He said coldly.

_And it'll no doubt move more as well Severus..._ thought Minerva, whilst giving him a cold glance.

Unfortunately - as he could tell from their un-perplexed, yet disturbingly cheery smiles - his attempt to deter them from their current line of thinking had failed. Apparently, they had grown resistant against his constant attempts at berating them. _Curse my own sarcastic nature._

"Severus..." Minerva began.

"Yes?" He inquired, not making this any easier for her. Asking for a Slytherin's help was very low on Minerva's priority list, and, if he was lucky, she would probably die of shame.

He grinned inwardly.

She scowled.

"We need you to go and find Hermione. We can't go, as we've got a meeting with that damned Fudge, and since everyone else seems to have discovered the ability to have food and conversation without entering this room, I'm afraid the responsibility rests on you."

"'Afraid?'"

"Yes. Knowing you and you bitchy nature - " Severus again rose an eyebrow – he had never heard of himself being referred to as 'bitchy'. "- You'll make it worse for her than it already is. Be that as it may, we need to find her. She needs to be present for at least part of the meeting."

He sighed heavily, dramatically placing his fork down as he did so and picking up his coffee cup. "Alright. I'll go once I've finished. And I'll get a house elf to make some food for her."

Minerva inhaled deeply, as if preparing a 'what do you mean, no!' speech. She then looked shocked and a little disappointed.

Severus, seeing that he was on a winning streak against Minerva, continued: "And I suppose that due to your combined all-is-right-with-the-world natures, you've neglected the fact that the girl is most probably suicidal? Her life, from what I understand, has so far been made a living hell by the man who somehow manages to pass as her father, and he has also killed her mother, whose funeral was just yesterday. She may be an annoying little know-it-all, with the Gryffindor _bravery_ that you both so much admire, but she is not indestructible...she may even be dangling in an unladylike manner from her ceiling right now - "

"Severus Snape! How _dare_ you! - "

"Dare what? Think realistically? Come on now Minerva..." He raised an inquisitive eyebrow. He tried to ignore the slight yet ironic panic arising in his stomach from his own words.

Albus sighed, _Will they ever stop bickering?_ "Children, children! Stop, please. I am sure Hermione is fine. She is not the type of person to do anything of harm without...thinking it through. And, despite his blunt nature, I do believe that Severus has a point. We can cast a checking-charm tonight, after the meeting. Now, however, you will go and check on her..." Although it sounded like a plea, Severus knew better than to ignore it.

"Yes Headmaster. Now, if you'll excuse me - " He rose from the table. " - I've got a handkerchief to get back."

Severus smiled curtly at them, enjoying their confusion and slowly made his way out of the door, heading towards the Gryffindor common room.

Minerva and Albus looked perplexed, and in together inquired: "Handkerchief?"

Severus stalked the corridors up to the fat lady portrait. The foreboding woman looked at him with an air of distaste and haughtily requested the password.

Severus sighed. "Capon." _Why is their password a type of chicken!_ The fat lady looked at him suspiciously, and then slowly opened the portrait hole. "Oh, and have you seen Miss Granger?"

The fat lady 'hummphed' in reply, not trusting herself to talk to a Slytherin.

Severus rolled his yes theatrically. "Fine. I'll search for her on my own."

"You do that." She replied, shutting the door a little quicker than strictly necessary.

Severus swore lightly as she managed to pinch his ankle, hard, with her portrait.

He walked slowly around the corner, looking at the unlit fire, and searching around the room. No one was here. Severus knew that she was staying at the infirmary, so this red _blood-soaked hell hole_ he thought morosely, _would be practically uninhabited._ He cursed his own stupidity, and looked around the dusty fireplace until he found what he was looking for. "Ahh, here it is."

He took out his wand, and pointed it at the small box. "Hafloramenta" he whispered the password, and was rewarded with the box spinning open to reveal floo powder. He tossed a pinch into the newly lit flames. "Infirmary".

Poppy's head appeared in the fire which was a somewhat disconcerting sight. "Is Miss Granger there?" "No Severus, why do you ask?" "Because I'm going to burn her at the stake for being a witch as soon as I see her in my sights." He replied dryly. She rolled her eyes. "Just asking." And she cut the communication. _Does my sarcasm work on no one in this school any more? I believe I'm beginning to miss Longbottom..._

Hermione sat in the library, tears staining the book that she was attempting to read.

The tears smudged the ancient writing into incomprehensible blobs.

Almost innately, she took out her wand and cleared the page for the third time in as many minutes. She smoothed over the page of the book before it wrinkled as it dried. As she put her wand back in her robes, she felt something smooth rub against her skin. Severus' handkerchief.

She gently caressed the delicate material, tracing his initials repeatedly, over and over again, almost hypnotically. As she did this, she wondered what was happening to her. She seemed to be falling for a teacher, but not just any; Severus Snape! A pureblooded-Slytherin who hated Gryffindors. Part of her knew that it was because he had helped her, because he was so understanding – surprisingly so – and that she needed a friend right now. Hermione had not yet told Harry and Ron, she could not think of how to at all…

Feeling the handkerchief once again, she thought back to how she had received it. He had handed it to her and had said nothing, because nothing needed to be said. He had not made a big deal out of her crying, instead just letting her deal with it on her own, but he was still there for her to rely on, if she needed him. Perhaps she was reading too much into such a simple gesture. But then she remembered his words and the look on his faced as he had said it.

"You're not alone." His words echoed in her mind. She had been surprised then that he had said that, with a sincerity that had stunned her and she was still surprised now. No matter what she thought she knew about him, she was generally wrong - or at least misguided.

Staring at the open book, she looked as though she were reading. However, underneath the table in her pocket, Hermione continued to handle the delicate material until she heard someone approach.

"So, here you are. I don't know why it didn't occur to me sooner that you'd be in your haven." He sat down opposite her. "I must admit, you're very good at hiding. I've spent the last hour searching for you."

After a few moments of silence, he became conscious of the fact that she had not looked at him yet, or even acknowledged his presence, and that she was staring intently at something on her lap. That panic he had felt earlier began to rise in him once more, and once more he chastised himself for feeling this way. It was not right; he should not be feeling like this towards her. He then realised that her lips were moving.

She whispered something incomprehensible.

"Pardon?"

She suddenly shot her head up, her fiery eyes boring into him, fresh with watery tears surrounding the outside. "God, you just like milking apologies for all they're worth, don't you? I said 'I'm sorry'. I know it's not exactly me on my knees, begging for mercy, but - " She silenced herself, and started to cry a little.

"Miss, Granger - " He tried hard not to be angry. _She's just lost her mother, she can't help it. You're just an easy target. After all, you are a bastard._ " - please believe me when I say that I honestly didn't hear you. You were looking at whatever that is in your lap, so I couldn't tell. And please, don't cry. I'm no good around over emotional females."

A ghost of a smile appeared over her features at the word 'females', slightly brightening her entire face. _She does look lovely...No! Don't do this. You cannot feel this way, you do not! You are merely helping a student in need. You're going to be a gentleman and help her. Aren't you?_ His formidable inner voice commanded.

He noticed that she had lifted whatever it was out of lap, and onto the table between them. But her hands were covering it. "I believe that this is yours..." She said quietly. Taking a chance, she reached over with one hand - the other still covering the handkerchief - and took his hand in her own. He looked at her quizzically. She placed his hand over her own.

They both looked down at their hands, and absently he began to lightly caress her wrist with his thumb. He noticed that she did not flinch away from him. "You know. It may not seem like it now, but you will be all right in the end. I promise you. I know more about this than you might think."

She looked at him and smiled. "I never saw you as the type to know all the clichés by heart." Hermione gently pulled her hand away, as he lifted his own up.

His handkerchief.

He took it in his hands and rubbed over his initials. He looked up and saw her watching him intently.

"Thank you." She said quickly. He looked at her quizzically once again. "For yesterday, I mean. You didn't make a big deal out of me, well, you know, crying."

"Why would I? I mean, I may be a Slytherin, but I'm not totally heartless." She thought it was strange for him to be degrading his own house, but then again, Slytherin was once a proud house. Now it was house of the mini Death Eaters and ignorant fascists.

He carried on, seemingly not noticing her sense of wonder about his lack of love for his own house. "Your mother had _died_, Hermione, anyone would be upset by something like that." Neither seemed to notice that he had called her Hermione, it seemed almost natural.

"Come. We have to go to see Professor Dumbledore. Fudge is here to see you about your Guardian, if you'll need one, that is. And your attempted use of an Unforgivable curse."

Hermione paled visibly at the memory of what she had done, but got up determinedly, closing the book as she did so, but leaving it on the table for now.

There was a knock on the door.

"Ahh, I believe that must be them. Severus must have found her." Minerva arose from her seat a little too keenly. After a somewhat tense 'discussion' with Fudge, she needed to vent her frustration about the stupid little man with the stupid little bowler hat.

Hermione and Severus sat down quietly, Hermione was still pale.

"Ahh yes, Miss Granger. I'm glad you're here. We must discuss your guardianship, after the demise of your mother." Severus silently marvelled at Fudge's lack of subtlety or tact. He looked casually over at Hermione who had paled even more so, but had the familiar Gryffindor determinedness in her eyes.

_I actually feel sorry for that man. He's trapped in the room with a hormonal, distressed teenager, an overly protective - almost motherly - Head of House, and Dumbledore. All Gryffindors. Then there's me. A Slytherin. In a class of my own. _

The meeting went on, and it was decided that Hermione didn't actually require a Guardian. Fudge had belatedly realised that she was now eighteen due to her time turner use, and was therefore legal adult age in the wizarding world – the muggle world would be satisfied with Dumbledore as her guardian until her official eighteenth birthday in September, when she would actually be almost nineteen.

Well, that wasted ten minutes at least.

Other things, such as Hermione's new account at Gringotts, would have to be opened. She began to protest that she had no money to put in the account, until Dumbledore informed her that her mother had left her earnings to her, not her father. She had changed her will four months prior to her death.

"Now. We need to discuss something else. The repercussions of your use of the killing curse. I believe that you should spend some time in Azkaban, naturally, as it is against the law to use an Unforgivable, let alone on a defenceless muggle. It is only thanks to Dumbledore that you have had some time here at Hogwarts under his supervision. However, the jury will decide."

Hermione looked at him with a stare that would have made anyone diminish in size. Fudge shrank in his seat. Hermione rose from her chair, she had had enough. Having been sat in that same chair for at least half an hour listening to some bureaucratic fool dictate her life to her, she was now more than a little fed up.

" 'Defenceless muggle' ? Let me get this straight. _You think_, that my father has the right to kill my mother, and almost kill me, and I can stand by and do nothing? _You think_ that as long as your head doesn't roll, anything can happen? It took you six months after Voldemort's murder - " Fudge flinched "- to capture Lucius Malfoy and chuck him into Azkaban where he belongs. And don't you _dare_ flinch when you hear his name. It's _just_ a name - the name of a dead man. And the next time I say Fudge, I will be saying the name of a dead man, unless you decide to actually clear those god forsaken glasses of yours, loosen the strap on that _stupid_ bowler hat of yours -" Minerva grinned " - and give yourself a reality check.

There's this thing in the muggle world called 'self-defence'. Ok, so I did a little wandless magic. Hello? Do you not see the major fact here? Not only did a muggle-born school girl perform wandless magic and it worked but also the fact that a muggle was able to use a wand!

The man killed my mother! He made my life a _living hell_ since I was able to walk, if not before. I think I showed amazing self-restraint! Instead of a court order, I think I should get an Order of Merlin."

Once again, Hermione was flushed, breathing erratically and realisation suddenly dawned upon her.

She had just sworn/belittled/sworn/disparaged the HEAD of the MINISTRY.

She sat down quietly, fuming at herself that she had had yet another outburst and this time it was not aimed at an erratic and senile old teacher. It was Fudge. _I think I'm going to cry. Oh well. Might as well go out with a bang. Azkaban...I really didn't see that one coming._

Even now, she refused to tear her once again determined gaze away from the pompous man with the stupid bowler hat, her eyes ablaze, she left the Minister of Magic flustered and stuttering.

"Well the, I er, don't think you need to worry about your 'accident' Miss Granger." He was nervously fingering his bowler hat. "You said that your father used the wand? But he's a muggle? Hm, maybe you could tell me a little mor-" He stopped as he saw another death glare - from Snape.

Severus rolled his eyes as Fudge began stuttering again, and looked at Minerva. She raised her eyebrow at Severus in a disturbingly familiar way and smiled wickedly.

Hermione began to breathe in slowly and deeply. She closed her eyes. _Oh my god, Severus Snape called me Hermione._


	6. There Is A God After All

**A Rose By Any Other Name.**

_By Kes._

**_Disclaimer:_** The usual, 'I don't own them, but I want to!' disclaimers apply.

She re-read the parchment in her hand. Hermione's presence in Dumbledore's office had been requested. _Must be serious to be so formal_ she mused to herself.It was now two weeks since her outburst at Fudge and very little had been said on that matter. There was a part of her thought that it was because the professors would be unable to resist the temptation to grin inanely if they ever discussed it with her. Now, however, there was just over a week left until she had to share the school with the rest of its pupils, an idea which had become very foreign to her, despite the fact that most of her time was still spent in the library or infirmary which had become her temporary accommodation.

Thanks to Severus' mostly-sarcastic words of caution, a makeshift 'suicide watch' had been enforced over Hermione by the staff. They thought she had not noticed, but she could see the concern hidden behind their eyes. At the moment though, she felt fine. Occasionally the reality of her situation would wash over her like a tidal wave and she would want to just sit and cry forever.

The trial she had been made to attend for her father had not been pleasant. She had had to divulge information that she had never wanted to think about ever again. Hermione had been incredibly down after that experience, more so than at her mother's funeral. As far as she understood from Professor McGonagall, Minister Fudge had pulled some strings in the muggle world for his trial to be rather speedy, as the Wizarding world had some questions of their own that needed to be answered. Luckily, she only needed to give evidence once.

She made her way to Dumbledore's office from the infirmary, thinking about how quiet the place was and how different it would be in over a week's time. She sighed. As she walked up to the door, Hermione struggled to remember the password. There were so many possibilities. Not only did Professor Dumbledore like wizard sweets, but he liked Muggle ones too.

After pondering open-mouthed for a while at the door waiting for inspiration to hit her, she noticed someone in black approaching in the corner of her eye. "Hello Professor."

"Miss Granger."

Briefly the thought of how she ever worked out that the black-clothed figure was in fact her potions professor flicked sarcastically through her mind.

"Do you know the password Professor?"

"Lemon drops. No, Cherry Drops." He furrowed his brow.

The door remained closed.

"Damn that man and his fickle taste in confectionary."

Hermione laughed lightly. "If you think _he's_ bad, you should see Ron. Honestly, he's like a small child at times!"

Severus smirked to himself and thought _I hardly think Mr Weasley can ever not be a small child..._

Hermione bit her lip slightly as she contemplated...

"Chocolate frog? No, erm, Wine gums? Crunchie? Bertie botts every flavour beans? How about...mcflurry? No, that's just stupid..."

The door opened, and the staircase whirled around, they jumped on.

"'Mcflurry?' What would that be exactly? " He looked at her, and cocked an eyebrow.

She grinned. "That would be telling…"

"Ahh, Miss Granger, thank you for coming. Severus, there you are. Please, both of you; sit down."

As Hermione sat down, Dumbledore silently handed her a letter whilst Severus moaned.

"Albus, must you insist on changing your password every few minutes? I know that you have a lot of 'fads' regarding sweets, but for the sake of my ridiculously frail sanity, please, keep the password to wizard sweets! If Miss Granger hadn't been there, I'd have been there all day. By the way, what is a mcflurry..."

Dumbledore smiled, with a twinkle in his eye, "Never mind that Severus, we have more important matters to attend to." He looked over at Hermione.

She sat there, in her chair, re-reading the letter. She couldn't believe it!

_Dear Miss Granger, _

_It has come to our attention, due to your evidence at the muggle hearing, and to what you told me during our meeting that your father is not necessarily who he says he is._

_In your evidence during the muggle hearing, you said that your father was adopted. It is my understanding that this is knowledge you have only recently acquired. Although, as you yourself said, your father did not like to discuss it as he was a small child when the adoption occurred and apparently has no memory of his birth parents._

_Furthermore, during your brief interview with us after the muggle hearing by Mrs Hithleswap earlier this week, during our own investigation at the Ministry due to your evidence, you claimed to have seen your father use a wand. As you know, wand-use is usually impossible for those of muggle-blood, with the occasional 'late bloomer', but not one of fifty years of age._

_Through_ _our _thorough_investigation for the past week with our best people working non-stop on this most intriguing case, it has come to our attention that your father Peter Granger was actually born under the name of PeterKnightley; a Wizarding family. He was, during examinations at the age of 3 - as usual for Wizarding families - found to be a Squib, a person of Wizarding background, but with virtually no talent for magic. When continuing our investigation, we discovered that your father was left in a muggle adoption agency soon after the test, as Squibs often have difficult lives in the Wizarding world, and was quickly adopted by the Granger family, as they did not have the ability to have their own children._

_Due to his young age, the Ministry did not have any records, as these are made at four years of age, when the child begins school. Also, when he was eleven, he had the chance to go to Hogwarts, like yourself, however he did not have sufficient magical ability to be permitted entry and was therefore classed as a muggle and therefore no record of him was required._

_It is assumed - although he denies all knowledge - that your father learnt of his real parents shortly before his adoptive parents died, as they knew he was a wizard-born. It is not known how they knew. One can of course speculate that this is why he resented you and your abilities, especially considering that your powers are exceedingly advanced, even compared to a wizard-born child of the same age._

_It is the decision of the muggle court that your father serves life in prison for the murder of your mother, and abuse of yourself, thanks to the evidence you so bravely gave._

_However, considering the fact that your father is, in fact a wizard, however novice, and taking into account his potential and conscious decision to use a wand, however rudimentary the spell, I, Cornelius Fudge deem that he be sent to Azkaban for life imprisonment. Due to my contacts with the muggle Parliament, I am able to see this through and ensure that he is indeed sent to Azkaban._

_If you wish to appeal against this decision, please contact the Law Courts Division on the Ministry of Magic._

_Yours Sincerely,_

_Cornelius Fudge_

Hermione sat in the chair, almost becoming a part of it, and re-read the letter again and again. As tears began to form, she looked up and noticed her two professors looking intently at her, with worried expressions on their faces. Severus, however subtle, was obviously most concerned, although he tried to ignore the reason why.

She had not noticed, but in the time it took her to read and re-read the letter, a few more people had come into the office for the meeting.

"I presume you all already know?" She said, shakily. She gripped the letter tightly, her knuckles whitening around it.

There were several nods of affirmation and Dumbledore finally piped up. "Yes dear, I'm sorry we didn't tell you as soon as we knew, but we thought it would be best for you to wait for the letter from Minister Fudge."

Right at this moment, however, Hermione had to admit to herself that she really did not care that they knew before her. All that mattered was that he was getting what he deserved, and right now with that thought in her mind, she was a little preoccupied.

She looked at the small crowd of people around her, amazed. "My dad's going to Azkaban? I thought he didn't know that he was a wizard, well, not for very long anyway, that's what it said on my letter..." She drifted off, re-reading parts of the letter absently.

"The fact remains" Said Severus "That he is 'one of us' as it were and acted as the worst of our kind has. Therefore, he should be punished accordingly."

Hermione smiled as tears of joy began to run down her cheeks, she did not know what to do, it was all so overwhelming.

She was aware that someone was talking to her, a woman. "Severus did it. It was his discussion with Fudge during his 'private meeting' with him yesterday that convinced him..." Poppy piped up.

Hermione looked up slowly at Severus slowly, her disbelief evident.

"Really...but why?" She asked him in a quiet voice, only to him.

Severus looked back at Hermione, having taken a moment to glance at Poppy in a not very subtle manner. "Because I knew that's what you would've wanted..." He replied in an equally quiet voice, becoming increasingly aware of the amount of people in the room, some of whom were smiling quietly to each other.

Hermione smiled slightly and then stared at him. "Really...well, thank you...he's going to Azkaban." She sighed with relief with a breath she had not realised she was holding. "That's more than mum and I could've ever hoped." She stood suddenly and practically ran to his side, suddenly forgetting that anyone else was there.

"Thank you." She smiled.

Attempting to keep a distance between them that was rapidly becoming smaller, Severus raised his stereotypical eyebrow and replied. "I believe that you already said that Miss Gra-" However, he was abruptly cut off, because Hermione kissed him.

Hermione stopped.

She moved backwards slightly…

…and sat back down.

She cleared her throat. "Like I said, thanks."

Severus coughed slightly. "Don't mention it."

Poppy and Minerva unsuccessfully attempted to hide their smirks.

It was going to be a long week.


	7. Women Buy Their Own Underwear!

**A Rose By Any Other Name.**

_By Kes._

**_Disclaimer:_** I don't own any of the toys or even the box, but I'll give them back when I'm done.

Two days after Hermione's good news, she was sitting at the table in the Great Hall when Professor Dumbledore handed her a piece of parchment. Glancing at it, she saw that it was the years' school list. "Thank you Professor." She said, whilst munching quietly on some toast.

As she read the list to see what she needed for this, her last ever year at Hogwarts, the other teachers floated slowly in the room one by one.

Minerva gave Poppy a nudge and a wink when a bleary eyed Severus came in and sat down next to Hermione – a natural choice to him considering that she was the next least chipper morning person there. No one had said anything about 'The Kiss' - in front of the kissers of course. Within the staff room, however, it was a different matter entirely. It was the subject of much gossip. Most of them decided that it was a harmless crush that Hermione had on a most unlikely suitor; they had no idea that it was reciprocated. There were, however, two people who had an idea, as ever, and they were happy for Severus although naturally concerned. Dumbledore and McGonagall looked at each other over the breakfast table, smiling benignly but with caution in their eyes. A relationship would cause scandal at Hogwarts and yet they wanted the two to be happy. But surely they were getting ahead of themselves.

The still bleary eyed Severus had a mix of emotions. In a way, the kiss had seemed like a perfectly natural thing for her to do, and on the other hand, he was her Professor. He was Snape. No woman had voluntarily tapped his shoulder, let alone kissed him, for a good few years. Unfortunately, her somewhat innocent action had awoken some of Severus' more base desires, things he had not thought about since he was a teenager, when he could afford to think of relationships.

Hermione had similar worries; she too had felt it was the natural thing to do. Besides, it was hardly a long lingering kiss; it was a quick kiss - admittedly on the lips. The lips. Those lovely lips of his. _Oops._ And, she admitted grudgingly to herself, she had done it because she wanted to.

_I am not the type of person who goes around having crushes on teachers. That's more of a Lavender thing...I wouldn't, let alone on Severus!_ It escaped her notice for the time being that she had called him Severus.

"Pass the coffee please."

All the teachers looked up. Who would they give it to? Both Severus and Hermione had requested the 'Drink of Life' as Severus called it at the same time. Since Severus was nearest, Poppy passed it to him. As he slid it along the table to Hermione - with an annoyed glare from Minerva, she hated it when they scuffed the table - he glanced at Hermione.

Severus blinked. _She's becoming more like me. She likes coffee, she's more sarcastic, she plays chess, and...oh dear, she's wearing black._ Severus casually glanced at Hermione whilst her eyes were down, focused on the paper: Her honey-dipped curls were just below shoulder length, her skin _was_ _quite_ pale - she had not been outside of the school buildings, let alone the grounds - even when she went to the meetings with Fudge, and to give evidence at the inquiries, she had apparated with Severus.

Hermione finally spoke. "Professor Dumbledore?" She enquired, taking a sip of her coffee as she did so.

"Yes my dear?" Dumbledore looked up, over the rim of his half-moon glasses with a twinkle in his eye.

"Would I be allowed to go to Diagon Alley today sir, to buy my new school equipment? …and to open a Gringotts account." She added, as an afterthought.

"Why yes, of course my dear. However, you'll need to be accompanied. It's your first time out and just to be on the safe side, I don't want you to go alone, you understand..."

Out of the corner of his eye, Dumbledore saw Poppy nudge Minerva and they both looked pointedly at Severus, who consequently suddenly found the rim of his coffee cup extremely interesting.

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled mischievously. "Why Severus my dear boy - " He saw Severus visibly bristle at his nickname from when he was eleven. "- I do believe that you need to visit the apothecary, do you not?"

Panic arose is Severus' throat, he could not trust himself alone with Hermione without the stifling confines of the castle. She was still emotionally frail and unsure of herself, as was he. "No, Headmaster, I ordered my requirements by owl."

"Oh, well could you go there anyway Severus?" Piped up Poppy. "I _would_ go myself, but...I agreed to help Minerva today, and I really do need to restock my supplies.

Severus finally gave in, but not before noticing the hurt look in Hermione's eyes when she realised he had been trying to dissuade them from him being their choice. _If only you knew why, it'd scare the living daylights out of you. A grown man with a...oh, I can't even think it...crush. _He shuddered. _Dear god, it's absurd._

"What do you need to obtain Miss Granger?" Severus asked; when the other teachers, not including Flitwick, had - finally - taken the hint of his glaring eyes and left.

"Oh, you know, the usual school junk, a few extra books and...some...other..._things_."

"Such as?" He inquired, in a slightly conspiratorial voice.

"I can't tell you. Well, I would normally, but it's just that - " Hermione cut herself off and began to blush furiously.

"'Well' what?" Severus' archetypical eyebrow shot up.

Hermione sighed in resignation and closed her eyes when she was saying it, the embarrassment of it all! "Ineedtobuysomenewunderwear."

"Pardon?"

"God! Do I _need_ to spell it out? I need to buy some new underwear and I'd rather not have to do it with my potions master standing by me!" Hermione's humiliation found a small glimmer of hope that they may both become suddenly deaf, like Harry and Ron did whenever she attempted to - out of a morbid desire to see them blush - talk about 'women's _things_'.

Well, it worked on Flitwick at least - he nearly fell off the numerous cushions on his chair.

Flitwick's 'response' was "Well, can't your Gryffindor girl friends get it for you?" in a squeaky, flustered tone.

And just as Hermione was about to reply, Severus answered: "Don't be absurd! What kind of woman would let another woman purchase her underwear?"

At this moment, time seemed to stop for Hermione as three thoughts flashed ever so suddenly into her mind: 1._How does he know that?_ 2. _Does he see me as a woman? 3._ _Yes! Not that I'm attracted to him..._ Her futile attempt to try and pretend that she was not beginning to become attracted to him on some sort of level was failing miserably.

"Isn't that right Miss Granger?" Time span forward by several seconds before Hermione's brain caught up with it all.

There was an incomprehensible mumbling sound, accompanied with what could be interpreted as a nod.

"How - that is, if you don't mind me asking - do you know that Professor?" Hermione enquired, blushing slightly at her own curiosity.

"I have two sisters who are both the hyperactive equivalent of your Miss Brown and Miss Patil."

"Oh, right." Suddenly, the vision of two female Snapes', actually smiling and shopping, whilst girlishly linking arms came into Hermione's head and she grinned.

They had decided to go shortly after breakfast, and so Hermione had hurriedly got her things together in her old bag and met Severus by the front door who was already looking bored. Strolling down towards Hogsmede, Hermione began to feel a little nervous. She suddenly began to realise just how bright everything was in the sunshine, and how open and airy it was around Hogwarts. She began to panic, her breathing was erratic. Hermione tried to ignore this as Severus grasped her shoulder firmly at the gates of Hogwarts and apparated them both to Hogsmede. She was still unable to do this herself, as she was not quite fit enough.

Once they arrived in Hogsmede, the brightness seemed to get worse and she had to shade her eyes. People were looking at them, as though suspicious. Hermione knew she was being paranoid. They had just apparated there; of course people were to be curious.

_Ok, I'm hyperventilating slightly. Has Hogsmede always been this spacious? I'm sure it hasn't... And why are all those people looking at me? Oh, Shut up Hermione! You're being paranoid!_

As they neared the pub, Severus and Hermione slowed down. He noticed that she was looking paler than usual and that her breathing was still erratic. "Miss Granger? Are you feeling okay?"

"Yes, of course, I'm fine!" She replied, perhaps a little too jovially.

She took a deep breath and followed Severus into the pub. She felt as though someone had stepped on her grave, and shuddered. _Just ignore it, and it'll go away. You haven't been out for ages. It's bound to happen!_

Glancing around the pub, Hermione was worried that she would see someone she recognised. Mercifully, however, they seemed to be too early for the rush of patrons of Madame Rosmerta's pub. In what seemed like seconds, they had used the floo network and were standing in Tom's pub near Diagon Alley. Hermione glanced around the dark dingy pub, without a glance from Tom, and followed Severus' example of making a hasty exit.

They had been shopping for what seemed to Hermione like forever. They had gone to Madame Malkins, the apothecary, as well as numerous shops Hermione had never even noticed before, and they were now currently in Flourish and Blotts. The amount of things she had bought was ridiculous, but she felt the need to start afresh, but cautiously. She had a limited amount of money at the moment. Thankfully, they did not need to carry their purchases, choosing instead to have them delivered directly to Hogwarts.

Luckily, they had not seen anyone from school yet. Hermione had been sure that they would have done, especially since it was the last week of term and most of the people she knew kept everything until the last possible minute. _So far so good then._

She was wandering through the shelves of books, looking for anything interesting that was not strictly on the reading list when she heard a regrettably familiar drawl from behind her:

"Hello, Granger." There was that all too familiar sneer and unfortunately, it was right behind her.

Not bothering to even turn around, she replied. "Shove off Malfoy."

"Well well, that's no way to treat a fellow student, is it _mudblood_?" The last part was said in a hushed tone.

Hermione turned around slowly. "How is your father, by the way? Fitting in nicely, I hope. _Do _tell me when the big day arrives." She practically hissed at him, referring of course to Lucius Malfoy's recent sentencing to the Dementors Kiss.

Malfoy paled - if that was at all physically possible - and muttered under his breath "My father may be gone, mudblood, but I can assure you, _I'm still very much_ alive."

A deep velvety drawl came from behind them both. "Is that so, Mr Malfoy? Well, I hope you've completed your potions assignment, to a higher standard than your usual half-hearted attempt."

Hermione felt herself involuntarily shiver at the sound of his voice. Briefly wondering where that had come from at a time like this, she realised that she wanted to feel it again. Hermione had always liked his voice on some level, but now there seemed to be a sort of protectiveness within it that made it all the more attractive. She smiled to herself. Thinking rationally about it, she did realise that she was most probably imagining it.

As Severus glared Malfoy Junior, a silent dare to compete with him, Hermione also glared at him, with a fair imitation Severus himself would be proud of. She stared at Malfoy with one, long, lingering look and turned on her heel to pay for her books with some of what was left of her money leaving Severus to deal with his student in whatever way he saw fit.

They had agreed to go to one last shop prior to their Gringotts stop in order to open Hermione's account. "Well Miss Granger, where would you like to go now?"

She inhaled deeply and replied. "Thelingerieshoptobuysomenewunderwear." She mumbled incoherently, whilst trying to shake off her eerie feeling of deja-vu.

"Alright." He sighed dramatically, wondering why women were this way but realising that it would never change. "This way."

They went inside, Hermione first, who walked around the shop swiftly. _Right. I've got 25 sickles left. I need 10 to open the account with. Mum's money that she left me in her will, as well as dad's - he won't need it where he'll be going - _She allowed herself a small grin. _will hopefully arrive by cheque in a couple of days._

When she had finished calculating her various expenses and choosing what she wanted, Hermione made her way to the cash register, and cast a quick glance at Severus. He was standing by the door, flitting his eyes around, not letting his eyes rest for too long. _He probably thinks that everyone will assume he's a pervert or something..._ Once she got up to the register, the cashier added up her purchases.

"That'll be thirty sickles please."

"Thirty? Oh dear. I don't have that much right now. Er, how much would this lot cost?" She took a few away from her little collection and put them to the side.

"That'll cost...-" The cashier paused to calculate the total with her wand. "Twenty sickles dear." She smiled kindly at Hermione. She handed over the money, sighing slightly. Her hand reached out when another, larger hand moved in her way, grasping thirty sickles. She followed the pale hand upwards, towards the wrist, and saw black.

"Prof-er, Severus?" She enquired, thinking it best not to let the cashier know that her teacher was about to buy her some new underwear, God knows what she would think.

"Yes…Hermione?" He said, catching on. "You didn't have enough money for the entire purchase, so I'll buy it for you..."

"Oh, you, you don't have to do that, really..." Her voice trailed off as he handed her the bag and pocketed the receipt. "I'll, I'll pay you back, I promise, as soon as my mother's money is transferred to my account." She attempted to keep up with him as his lengthy stride headed towards the door - apparently, he was as reluctant as Harry and Ron to be here and for a fleeting moment, Hermione thought that was why he had bought it. All Severus had wanted to do was to speed the whole process along, and not, as she had previously assumed, because he had wanted to.

Suddenly she felt very down. Hermione had no idea why she wanted him to buy her underwear. Perhaps it was that he wanted to buy her _something_, and not necessarily anything in particular. _Why am I feeling this way about him? God, all he did was help me for a couple of weeks and I'm acting like Lavender!_

This thought, however, was abandoned as he stopped suddenly in the Alley and turned to look at her. "Hermione, you do not have to worry. I have more than enough money to pay for that." He gestured towards the bag she was holding. "You are not in my debt; I bought it simply because I wanted to buy it for you." She noticed that he would not look her in the eye, and then had to speed up yet again as he quickened his pace towards Gringotts.

"Well, thank you very much. It really was kind of you, but I still feel 'in your debt'." She avoided using his name, as she was completely unsure of what to call him now.

"Please, don't let your Gryffindor sentimentality get in the way of a gift." He turned towards her, the edges of his lips curving slightly, to let her know he was teasing.

"Now. Let's go and open your account, shall we? And can we try and get this done quickly? I'm not very fond of goblins..."

"Personality clash. A little too close to home I suppose." Muttered Hermione; and she blushed as he turned around and rose an eyebrow. He smiled slightly.

"Perhaps."


	8. Please Don't Fade Away

**A Rose By Any Other Name.**

_By Kes._

**_Disclaimer:_** As ever, nope, I am not JKR. Sorry to disappoint.

After their trip out, having settled down to the idea of going out and about again, Hermione had slept well that night. Despite being alone in the infirmary, part of her felt warm and fuzzy, content with the fact that Severus at least seemed to care for her. Of course, she could have been reading it all completely wrong, but hoped that she was right.

The next morning as she was getting dressed, Hermione mulled over what had occurred the previous day. She had gone outside in public, for the first time in a few weeks. Yes, she had ended up having a mild panic attack, but she thought she had done quite well. Yes, she had hyperventilated every time she had seen someone look at her, or whenever she had gone outside of a shop on her own, she became jumpy.

She was now dressed and ready for breakfast and so she made her way to meet the staff. As she wandered lethargically towards the Great Hall, she mulled over her new feelings. She was not used to this at all.

Thinking back, she realised that the last time she had felt this – she supposed 'giddy' - was with Lockhart. Admittedly, she had only been about twelve at the time and so could not be wholly blamed for falling for someone so obviously entirely wrong for her. Even after that fiasco, she had had a hard time forgiving herself for it, even at the tender age of twelve. And, of course, there was Viktor in her fourth year. 'Going out' - if you could call it that - with a man who could hardly pronounce your first name correctly, and whose main line of conversation was about charms that could make his broom go faster without messing up his hair just was not what Hermione called a good idea.

Then there had been Ron. They had decided to have a go at being a 'couple', but after the disastrous first kiss, and Ron's attempt at a little bit more, they had decided to just be friends, although Harry had told her recently what she already knew - that Ron still had feelings for her. The only problem was, they were not reciprocated. Fleetingly she realised that she had not had a reply to the rather disorganised letter she had sent them. Had she sent it? Now she was not so sure…_I'm really not back to myself yet. I suppose I'll have to send a letter if I don't get a 'reply' soon…_

But _now _it was a tall, dark, handsome man with a voice that could send shivers down her spine with a simple "Could you pass the coffee please?" in a gravely tone. No one had ever had this effect on her before. Not even Ron. She felt slightly guilty, as she saw the looks Ron still gave her over their cornflakes. She sighed audibly as she walked towards the Head table. What was she going to do?

"Something wrong Miss Granger?" She closed her eyes briefly at the sound. _Mm...that voice._

"G-good morning Professor." She sat down shakily as he gave her a puzzled glance. Minerva grinned at the rising blush in Hermione's cheeks. The other women also seemed to notice it. They had all been affected - at some degree or another, even those supposedly old enough to know better - by Severus' velvety voice, and had been waiting to see how long it would be until Severus ensnared his next victim.

Of course, the man in question was totally oblivious to the effect his voice had on the opposite sex.

Breakfast went without a hitch. Unless you count Hermione's breath continually hitching in her throat every time the man next to her - far too close for her liking - spoke. She did not like this sensation one bit; she could not control her reactions any more. Whilst part of her was excited, she was scared he would notice.

As Hermione reached for some more orange juice, it suddenly dawned on her that she was wearing the same top that she had when she had spoken to Professor Dumbledore about her mother's funeral. How she had remembered, she was unsure. But she knew of it.

This triggered memories of her mother, both the good and the bad. Her mother cowering by the oven in the kitchen as her father yelled at her with a knife in his hand - he had never actually used it, liking far more the satisfying sound beneath his own hands at the sound of bones breaking. Then there were the happy ones. Usually when her father was away, or when he was on a 'happy fix' as she had called them. But even these moments were occasionally littered with the memory of her continual on-edge fear of what to and not to say.

She swallowed deeply and took in a few extra breaths.

"Ex-excuse me." She said quickly as she rose from the table in a hurried manner and practically ran from the Great Hall. Severus automatically rose to follow her, but was gently held back by a hand on his arm from Professor Dumbledore. He looked curiously at the older wizard with a look of annoyance and the look that was returned was one of understanding.

"I know Severus. But no. You can't go. Let her have her cry out. I'd follow her too, you know that - " He defended as he saw the angered look he received. "But I think that she needs to be alone right now."

Grudgingly, Severus sat back down, knowing that Dumbledore was as right as ever, glad that they at least had that life-essence charm on her to check that she would not do anything silly.

Hermione stood by the lake, silent. The lake she had been placed at the bottom of during her fourth year for Viktor. _The dunce. I could've had myself and everyone else out much quicker than him. And as for 'Macho Harry, The Testosterone Kid', honestly! He wasn't much better...Did he honestly think that Professor Dumbledore would let us die? The silly boy..._

She started to giggle quietly to herself. _That's the first sign of madness Hermione. And, you're talking to yourself..._ She sighed.

Her mind flashed forwards a year from her temporary habitation of the lake, to when she received her OWL scores. Eleven Outstandings, naturally. She was proud of herself and the hard work she had put into achieving them. Her mother cried when she got home. Anne was so proud of her daughter. They had decided not to tell her father, he would not have wanted to know…

It was about six weeks ago. Six weeks since her father had killed her mother. And, after a speedy trial, her father was discovered to be a wizard (a squib, but still a wizard) and packed off into Azkaban faster than she could jump up and down in hysterical laughter.

She had not yet visited her mother's grave.

She could not bring herself to.

But she knew she would, eventually. In her own time. She just needed some time.

And right now, she had plenty of that. She had done all of her homework, if not a little more. Staying at Hogwarts definitely had its advantages. She was able to ask the teachers for help and advice regarding her homework. She had even asked Professor McGonagall for animagi training.

As she stood there, reflecting on her past triumphs, and her mother's face, beaming with unabashed pride at her daughters achievements brought tears to her young eyes that had seen far too much hardship in too short a time.

A dark figure was walking slowly towards the lonely girl as he quietly watched her. She was standing at the edge of the lake, looking outwards but not really seeing the lake. He had heard her laugh gently and had decided that he liked the sound. Severus became resolved to hear it more often.

With her light brown curls swaying gently in the light wind, and her cloak swishing about her ankles, she was the vision of beauty.

But this was swept quickly away...

She screamed.

"Bloody merpeople!" He heard her curse before her body was pulled under the water. He quickened his pace, but when he arrived, she was hacking and coughing in an undignified manner attempting to get the excess water out of her lungs.

In between her deep heaving breaths, he could hear a variety of colourful curses coming out of her seemingly innocent mouth. He heard a few that he recognised as curses of the Weasley clan and smiled gently, laughing to himself.

He knelt down beside her and raised an eyebrow. "Do you require assistance Miss Granger?"

Her brown head shot up, eyes blazing. "No, it's all right thank you. I can inhale water just fine by myself, but thanks all the same." Realisation appeared on her features as it dawned on her who she was back-chatting to. She blushed. "I'm-I'm sorry Professor..." _She's blushing and stammering an awful lot lately. Perhaps it's because of me... No, Severus, be serious. Between you and the athletic boy-who-lived, who do you think would win the contest?_

As they both sat there, him kneeling, she squatting on the floor heaving for deep cleansing breaths, they hardly looked like the conventional couple. However, as Severus helped her slowly up to her feet, his hand lingering on the small of her back a little longer than was necessarily required, and her grateful smile as he gently pushed her damp hair out of her eyes as he cast a drying charm, they made the perfect picture.

High up in a tower above them, Professor Dumbledore, complete with twinkling eyes covered with half-moon glasses was looking at them, smiling serenely to himself.

_Why am I even here? I never fly. Oh well, I need a little more fresh air I guess. And I dare not go anywhere near that damned lake again..._

Hermione unlocked the broom shed with a quick flick of her wand and selected a broomstick. She locked the door again and walked out slowly towards the middle of the Quidditch pitch. _I haven't been here since I did that spell on Harry's glasses. I'm usually on the side-lines..._

She silently mounted her broom as she contemplated the fact that her Quidditch life exactly mirrored her life with Harry and Ron: She was just there to help, get them out of tricky situations with her intelligence, but other than that, she was just the voice of reason and restriction. She was never really allowed to have her own adventures. _I suppose I'll always be seen as the (perhaps clever, if they remember) "little muggle-born friend of the Boy Who Lived and his pure-blooded sidekick". No matter what I become, I'll always be seen as a mudblood. Dear God. Malfoy's right!_

She lifted herself up from the ground hesitantly, broom shaking slightly. After a few moments she got the hang of it and began to slowly move the broom around, a few meters forward, a few meters back…

_Even with Voldemort gone, I'm still looked down upon, as if I'm a lesser person just because I'm not a 'pure-blood'...not officially anyway. Fudge said that my dad's real blood-line would be disgraced, even though they'd have a good witch in their family. Admitting my father is a squib would be worse than him being a muggle._

By this time, she had successfully raised her broom about twelve feet into the air, and was currently hovering. She then managed to fly around the pitch a few times. _This is more than I can usually accomplish! Harry and Ron would be so proud..._ She grinned from ear to ear and she did a - wobbly - figure of eight and a loop-de-loop.

She stopped suddenly, jerking the broom and her hair flying into her face. _No. They wouldn't. They'd probably see it as yet another thing I've accomplished, even if it is a big thing, for a muggle-born..._

Hermione looked down. She was high, very high._ Oh my god._ She floated downwards with as much grace as she could muster, proud with herself that she could do it. Even though no one was watching. _Even if they were, they'd just say an obligatory 'Well done Hermione, of course you did it. You're Hermione.' It's not fair. Just because I'm clever doesn't mean that I find things easy._

When she landed, she was annoyed at people who were not even there. Perhaps that was why. She chucked the broom on the floor with as much anger as possible, satisfied with a slight crunch. _Good. It looks like Ron's now._ She thought with a trace of malice.

Hermione stormed off to the one place no one would suspect her to be. Moaning Myrtle's 'home'.

Little did she know that a black figure was watching her intently from a window high up in the astronomy tower, his black cloak swishing characteristically around him in the slight wind.

Hermione had been in the girl's toilets for a couple of hours. She had managed to stop crying once or twice. However, one casual glance in the mirror and the sight of a red puffy eyes and tear-stained cheeks graced her viewing; she had started up yet again.

Her feelings of nostalgia for the good old days when it was just her, Ron and Harry in their first year, and when her father had been on a weekend conference to Brighton, and her mother and herself had been alone for an entire week. This automatically led to her mother's death, to her helplessness and feelings of guilt at not helping her. This then led to her father. His lack of remorse, and cold eyes boring into her very soul had disturbed her more than she was willing to admit.

She kept thinking about those at Hogwarts, her classmates. Very few of them would consider her a friend. She had tried to be liked, really she had, but so few were interested. She was unusual, she was unique. People tend to dislike those who fail to conform, even in the Wizarding world.

Myrtle had been in the u-bend once again when she heard the ominous sobbing. She was about to yell at whoever the heck it was to get out of her bathroom until she noticed who it was. She gasped. _Hermione? I haven't seen her for years...She must not like me anymore..._Once again, Moaning Myrtle's fragile self-esteem was in tatters as she floated quickly to her u-bend again, intent on flushing the entire room out when she heard someone gasp in pain.

"Hermione?" She inquired quietly. Moving slowly through the stall walls, trying not to make a sound, seemingly forgetting that she was a ghost. Finally she came upon Hermione.

Myrtle screamed.

"Hermione! What have you done!"

Hermione was laying on the floor, gasping for breath, her blood-stained wand on the floor, partly transfigured into a razor.

And there was blood covering her wrists, slowly flooding the space around her in a deep red - she must have cut deep. It looked as though Hermione had involuntarily collapsed onto the floor. As if she had doubled up with the shock of pain, and then passed out with blood loss.

_What do I do?_ A thought drifted through Myrtle's mind that she would at last have a friend with her, until she heard a slight whimper:

"Severus."

Hermione had opened her eyes, whispered, and was again silent. Myrtle could not quite tell if it was because Hermione was unconscious again, or because she had no strength.

Myrtle thought fast. _Severus? Isn't he a student...? No, no, he's a professor now...but for what? Potions! When Hermione made that potion in her second year, she said he'd be mad at her for doing this!_ She rattled her brains as to where the potions classroom was, she had hardly needed to know - and prayed he was there...

Severus was marking papers from the end of term exams, wishing he had something more interesting to do when suddenly, someone was screaming in his classroom. A very pale someone...

He raised an eyebrow and looked up, apparently unperturbed by the presence of a screaming ghost. "What do _you_ want?"

Myrtle attempted to compose herself as she relayed the events in a very hurried fashion.

Severus noticed she had traced of tears down her cheeks. Various thoughts questioning a ghosts ability to cry fled his mind when he heard the words "Hermione", "blood", and "passed out" in the same fragmented sentence.

Myrtle was about to go through the walls when she realised she was in the presence of a fleshy. She floated through the corridors as Severus ran very quickly behind her. They finally - which was only about a minute or so later - reached their destination.

He gasped audibly.

"Oh my God, Hermione."

He ran to her side whilst simultaneously pulling out his wand and began casting healing charms on any place where blood was evident. His eyes never left her body, even when he instructed the pale ghost to go and fetch Dumbledore and Madame Pomfrey.

His face began to look as green as the ectoplasm splattered on the various walls of the toilets as he worked in an attempt to save her life.

Hermione awoke with a start in the Hospital Wing. _Seems familiar, it's as though I never left..._ As she attempted to remember why she was there in the first place, her memory of the night before kicked in. She had attempted to kill herself. _Apparently, I'm not very good at it. Well, that's a first._ She thought wryly.

She started to cry.

_I'm so crap at everything, and I miss mum! I want her back, it's not fair! And this whole 'moving on' crap just isn't working at the moment. Why can't I just live a normal life with a normal family? And why the hell haven't Harry and Ron replied? I know that they're away watching Quidditch, but you'd think they'd take a little time to write to me! Oh, God. I feel so alone..._

Severus watched her from the doorway of the Hospital Wing. He was about to go and see her when he noticed she would probably want to be alone for a little while.

It then belatedly occurred to him as he was walking down the corridor that perhaps _that_ was one of the reasons _why_ she had tried to kill herself...now, more than ever she _needed_ her friends, and they were not here, even though she had been there for Potter all those times. He quietly acknowledged the fact that the Potter boy and his sidekick were hundreds of miles away, but he was still mad at them both.

He quickly turned around and headed back towards the crying young woman.

"Miss Granger?"

Hermione looked up at the sound of his baritone voice. She sniffled a couple of times whilst trying to locate him in the room.

And there he was. In the doorway, head peeping from the side as if afraid to come in.

She looked away from him.

"Why?" She said. As he walked forward, he looked somewhat puzzled. She elaborated, not looking at him, but sensing his confusion.

"Why did you save me? Couldn't you take a hint?" There was a slight tone of resentment in her voice, but Severus was unfazed. He had heard that tone many times before, and from many different sources.

"Because you are ill. You're depressed, Hermione. Your mother is dead, your father has been convicted of her murder, and you are now finally free from a domestically-abusive home environment. I know for a fact that that would be a shock to anyone. You did not mean to kill yourself - well, you did - but, in your heart, I knew you did not want to die...Just think about all the NEWTS you'd have missed."

His attempt at a joke was missed.

"Exams?" She laughed harshly. "You said yourself that I've been through a lot, and that's true. But now I've got things into perspective. I don't care anymore. Not about schoolwork, not about grades, not about any_thing_ or any_one_. We're all going to die in the end right? So why delay the inevitable? So...so just...leave me alone."

The resignation in her voice surprised him. He had thought that she would have done the 'Granger-thing' and piled herself with a ridiculously hectic schedule in an attempt to learn things that she already knew.

But no. Not this time. She had changed. Her innocence had gone.


	9. In vino veritaserum

**A Rose By Any Other Name.**

_By Kes._

**_Disclaimer:_** Alas, I do not own it.

When Hermione awoke in the Infirmary, it was dark. She squinted, trying to get a focus on the clock on the wall opposite her. It was nine thirty. _I've been asleep all day?_ She delicately swung her legs over the side of the bed and stretched lethargically. As she rose carefully from the bed, she heard someone else get up.

"Back in bed missy. I don't care what you say; you are not going out of my sight." Apparently, Madame Pomfrey had an annoying habit of appearing in places that you hardly knew existed.

Hermione sighed and wordlessly got back into bed. Poppy went back into her office when she saw Hermione close her eyes.

One eye slowly opened.

Then another...

A hand carefully reached over to the bedside table, and Hermione silently prayed that her wand was there.

It was.

"Mobilicorpus." She whispered. Her body felt weightless as she was lifted over the bed and towards the door, the only guide was her own wand.

As soon as she reached the door which was open for some unknown reason, Hermione silently cursed. She was in her nightdress and had bare feet which were currently freezing on the cold stone floor.

She saw her slippers on the floor and accio-ed them. As for her dressing gown, it was too far away. She pulled out a dirty sock that was, for some strange reason, stuffed in a slipper and concentrated in order to transfigure it into a dressing gown. A slight spark was emitted from her wand.

Hermione contemplated what had happened earlier with her Professor and what he had said to her. Severus was right. _Damn him._ She looked at her arms and noticed pale white marks where she had tried to harm herself. They were healing quite nicely and should be gone within a few days. Hermione felt ashamed of what she had done and yet at the moment she had the sneaking suspicion that if she could, she may actually try and do it again. Right now, however, she was annoyed at Severus and the fact that he was always right.

Feeling the need to argue with someone who would not necessarily take it personally and yell back at her without the annoying guilt that would creep up on someone else for arguing childishly with a student, she headed for the dungeons at a speedy pace.

As she delicately padded her way down the various stairs, she held her wand out in a protective stance and almost hexed the wall when she heard a smash from somewhere in her new dingy domain. The dungeons.

She heard yet another smash, this one a little closer, and the sound of a male voice cursing whilst trying to fix what he had broken with his wand. There was yet another string of colourful curses. Apparently, his wand would not work.

She slowed her pace and turned the corner carefully. "Professor?".

A dark head of hair whipped round, eyes blazing, and then softening. "Oh. Its you." At the disappointment in his tone, she felt slightly dejected. He turned back round, focusing his attention elsewhere. Following his line of sight, she saw a cauldron bubbling.

"What are you making Professor?"

He pointed to the caludron: "Veritaserum." then to the overly large bottle next to it "B-brandy."

"Why?" She asked, edging slowly to the cauldron.

He shrugged. "Because I can? I don't know..." His posture was no longer the usual defensive and proud stance that he usually adopted as he slumped unceremoniously in the chair opposite her and the cauldron.

Hermione was unsure of what to do. As she had gone past him, she had smelt the brandy on his breath, and his eyes were slightly hooded and glazed over. He was drunk. And she had a cauldron-full of veritaserum. _Oh, the possibilities!_ Her previous thoughts of arguing them both senseless had vanished from her mind, and in its place was concern for him - and perhaps a little mischief.

"Professor, are you all right?" Already knowing the answer.

"Of course I'm all right Hermione. And...it's Severus." _Ok, so I didn't know the answer._ She had expected a row about her stupidity.

She momentarily thought of how nice her name sounded as it rolled of tongue. Then a realisation arose. _He wants me to call him Severus! Yes, he's drunk, but still..._

It belatedly occurred to Severus that she was out of bed. And that earlier today, she had attempted to kill herself.

His eyes narrowed at her shivering form. "Why are you here? And are you cold?" It was a poor attempt at imitating his usual foreboding voice, but it still sent shivers down her spine. As he asked, he rose unsteadily from the chair and casually lit the fire whilst walking over to the brandy and pouring two glasses. He handed her one, and downed the other.

"I...I don't really know why I'm here. At first it was so I could yell at you. I thought you'd like that..." She smiled openly - the first genuine smile in a while - at the boyish grin that appeared on his usually haggard features. _I think I like him better this way... Wow, that shows how bad he must feel normally. I mean, getting drunk is the only way for him to loosen up, and then he doesn't even remember afterwards..._ She downed the brandy, grimacing slightly at the unfamiliar taste.

"Want some?" He asked her, as he sat on the edge of his desk, turning at what must have been a painful angle in order to keep eye contact with her and pour the veritaserum at the same time.

"Er, no thanks. I think I'll pass. But you...you go right ahead!" Hermione lifted her arms at made a gesture meaning 'by all means' – feeling guilty that she was so willing to take advantage of him but still unable to stop himself. She smiled at him as he nodded and downed it at the same rate he had the brandy. He burped loudly, and his hand went straight to cover his mouth as he attempted to hide his sheepish grin and his wide-eyed expression. "Sorry."

She laughed hard at the sight of her usually formidable Potions Master burping and apologising. She eventually controlled herself and stopped.

"No. Don't stop. I like that sound." He suddenly sounded very young.

He looked away from her quickly.

Hermione looked at the back of his head quizzically. _The veritaserum must be kicking in..._ "What do you like?" She asked hesitantly.

He looked away again, unable to keep eye contact. "Your...smile, and your laugh." He was quiet for a moment. "and your intelligence...and..." He trailed off. A blushing Hermione coerced him to continue.

"No. I'll sound stupid. And you'll probably either laugh at me or run away." He blushed slightly, the combination of the brandy, veritaserum and embarrassment bringing colour to his usually barren cheeks.

For some unknown reason, Hermione went over to him, and picked up his hand, studying it. She looked slowly up into his eyes. "I _promise_ you that I won't laugh."

He leaned forward slightly, closed his eyes and inhaled her sweet smell. He pulled back. "I like the smell of your hair." He hesitantly moved his fingers towards her hair to caress it. "I like the way it feels too."

Blushing more than was considered sane at this unusual contact with a man who had never even accidentally bumped into her in her last six years, was more than she could handle. She slowly backed away and cleared her throat, stammering slightly.

"Ok, I-I want to check that your all right." She said shakily, attempting to control herself. _He's drunk Hermione. You're a girl - young woman - any drunken man would fall over a female who came near them..._

"I said that I was. What was it? My admittance that I'm human? Did that scare you, Hermione?" He inquired calmly, consciously trying not to raise his voice in case it would scare her away.

She involuntarily shivered at the deep sound of his voice.

"What's your name?" She asked, purposely ignoring his question.

"Severus Snape." He nodded once, a nod that was reminiscent of someone who had just remembered a very important detail and was very proud of themselves.

"Er...how old are you?" He sighed as if in regret. "36. 18 years older than you."

"17 years. Time turner, remember?" She knew that Minerva liked to gossip and what was the harm in people knowing after she had finished with the time turner?

He nodded slowly, as if in confusion, eyes half closed in concentration of watching a memory on the back of his eyelids.

An evil grin akin to one of the Wesley twins appeared across her face. "Are you attracted to anyone...like a woman...or man, I suppose."

He looked at her, and then looked away. "Yes."

After realising that he was reluctant to elaborate voluntarily, she asked him specifically. "He or she?"

An astonished look appeared on his face, surprised that she would think he was gay. "She!"

"Ok...so your _not_ gay." _I knew that Harry and Ron were wrong._ She neglected to acknowledge her own elated happiness.

"Does she know?"

He contemplated. "No. I don't think so. At least I hope not. It would be the end of my career."

"Where is she?"

He raised an eyebrow, as if she was asking the stupidest question after 'Is Voldemort really that bad a guy?'

"She's right here, obviously!" He said, staring at her. Apparently, the veritaserum was overtaking his system, causing him to lose his inhibitions.

She stood there, dumbstruck. "Oh. Right. Ok. Right." She fought against the impulse to grin insanely like an idiot.


	10. Bittersweet triumphs

**A Rose By Any Other Name.**

_By Kes._

**_Disclaimer:_** I don't own any of the Harry Potter Universe, sorry.

Severus awoke with a start the next morning in his bed. Briefly, he wondered how he had ended up with a Gryffindor cloak lounging precariously over him as well as his extra bed sheets. Now that he concentrated properly, able to focus, he noticed that he was actually on the bed rather than in it.

Severus groaned as he attempted to rise from his bed. At first assuming it was a full body bind, he lay back down waiting for it to slowly fade. This was until he realised that body binds are not usually accompanied with very painful head and neck aches._ What did I drink last night? And why is a Gryffindor - Hermione's - cloak over me?_

As fragments of his memory gradually began to reappear, he cringed and rose from the bed delicately, and padded over on the - thankfully - carpeted floor of his private quarters. He moved delicately towards his potions cabinet whilst holding his head and shielding his eyes from the sunlight that was attempting to break through his dark-shaded blinds.

He greedily gulped down the remnants of a hangover potion, hoping it would work, and sighed in blissful happiness as clarity began to return to his fuzzy head. He then made his way slowly to the shower, and with a flick of his wand, got in, hot steamy water cascading down like a waterfall.

As he was rinsing his hair, a thought suddenly dawned on him. "How the hell did she know where my rooms are?" He yelled this out loud to no one in particular, and got out of the shower in a hurried fashion, so fast in fact that he slipped on the rug and went flying through his quarters and hit the old wooden front door very hard. His wet hair clung possessively to his face, as did - _thank god, _he mused - the white towel around his middle.

He got dressed carefully, minding where he was walking, and was about to stroll out of the door for breakfast when his thoughts came back to the Gryffindor cloak. _Her_ Gryffindor cloak. He took it in his hand and pretended to casually lift it up - so that he could smell her perfume - as if someone was watching him. He closed his eyes as he took in her smell, grateful for this opportunity. After some careful deliberation, Severus decided to go against his original plan of handing it to her at breakfast, and instead give it to her later. Otherwise, the abnormally curious Minerva may ask questions.

Severus walked to the table in the Great Hall and automatically sat down next to Hermione. Whilst reaching for the coffee pot, he looked pointedly at Minerva and Poppy who were yet again whispering to each other then would look at Severus and Hermione in turn. He rolled his eyes theatrically and turned away.

Meanwhile, Hermione watched Severus enter the room through the veil that was her curly hair. She was unsure about what had happened the day before. What should she think of it? _Should I ignore it? He was drunk...but is it really so inconceivable that a guy would like me? I mean, I seem to like him despite my best efforts…_ Despite all of this, she also had to pretend to be totally oblivious to her supposed superiors Minerva and Poppy. She sighed to herself.

Professor Dumbledore entered the room and went straight to Hermione, handing her a letter, the ever-present twinkle in his eye. He looked around the table: "Good morning everyone. I trust you all had a rested evening and slept well - " He looked blatantly at Severus who was instantly alarmed.

"Here you go Miss Granger." He added, in a more hushed tone, finally letting go of the letter.

Hermione smiled her thanks and proceeded to open the letter. It was addressed to her home address from Hogwarts, as if they had been about to send it to her but in the end decided not to.

Before she even had chance to read the letter, a small silver object fell on to her lap. Curious, she picked it up aware that someone's eyes were on her. As she fingered the object, she turned it around to see the words: 'Head Girl' emblazoned on to it. Wide-eyed, she studied the letter.

By the time she looked up, she noticed that everyone was looking at her, smiling. Well, except Severus, naturally.

Then it hit her suddenly, as though someone had slapped her in the face and she instantly became annoyed at her own stupidity and hurt at their cowardice.

She rose abruptly from the table and Dumbledore in the eye, glaring at him and then at Severus with hurt in her eyes. How could _he_? She thought he had cared for her on some level. How could he be a part of this pity party?

"I don't want your sympathy!" She cried out, storming out of the Great Hall, leaving a very bewildered set of teachers behind in her wake.

After at least an hour of constant searching for the emotionally unstable teenage girl, Severus was beginning to tire. At first he had been in somewhat of a blind panic, as much as he was loathe to admit it, and frantically began to search the nearby rooms whilst the others did the grounds and other more remote parts of the castle on the assumption that she would perhaps hide from them all in her distressed state.

Dumbledore was particularly worried as when Hermione had left he noticed something that the others could merely sense. He saw her raw magic, and if she was losing control of her magic then they could all be in danger.

Severus had gone to her rooms - as had everyone, at some point or another - but there was no one, save the ginger ball of fluff she somehow claimed to be a living cat. He then proceeded to her haven. The library. Nothing. Sighing, and thinking that she would come back to them in her own time, deciding that Dumbledore was merely exaggerating (although he knew he would never do such a thing) Severus decided to go back to his rooms where he would have a quick shower and check his fireplace for messages.

Muttering to himself something about the inane stupidity of teenage girls (and yet finding himself disconcertedly worried despite his best attempts) whilst undoing the multitude of complex wards that guarded his humble abode, he strode confidently in…

She was lying fast asleep on his bed.

He stood in front of the bed dumbfounded for a moment. Severus Snape had met the Dark Lord and come away from it walking, he had seen people die in battle, but the sight of…_her_…on his bed made him stop and stare.

Hermione woke up, and searched the unfamiliar rooms for something recognisable and was greeted with the sight of her potions professor, eyebrow raised, looking up from his book.

He watched her stare at him in wide-eyed confusion. Then she blushed, totally speechless.

_She looks even more attractive when she blushes...did I just think of a student as 'attractive'? Call St Mungo's, I think I'm insane. I'm falling for a student..._

"I'm-I'm sorry Professor, I didn't think I'd fall asleep, I'll be going now..." She hastily got up and put on the Gryffindor cloak, even though she had her normal muggle clothes on underneath it. As she rose, she self-consciously smoothed out the bed sheets and slipped her shoes - that she'd taken of to ensure she didn't mark anything - back on. Thankfully her tear marks on the pillow had dried on their own.

As she hurried over towards the door, she hazarded a glance over at her abnormally subdued potions master, who was currently sitting calmly in the chair opposite the bed, with a book on his knees and a somewhat bemused expression about his features.

A confused look greeted Severus. "You're not mad at me?" She blurted out. _Well done Herm. 10 points to the house of stupidity!_

She blushed furiously yet again and closed her eyes as though willing herself to just _stop._

His expression softened somewhat as he looked at her with an earnest concern. He took out his wand and pointed it at another chair in the room and accio-ed it to them. "What's wrong Miss Granger?" He indicated with his hand to the seat opposite him.

She hesitantly sat down.

"Nothing sir." She replied, characteristically biting the right side of her bottom lip slightly, attempting not to have an outpour of emotion.

One sceptical glance; that was all it took.

The lip suddenly quivered, now unsure.

His deep voice travelled straight through her. "Miss Granger...Hermione...if you want to talk, you can. I understand that I'm neither your Head of House, nor one of your Gryffindor cronies. I am, however, here. Right now. And, although I won't force you to talk, I can tell you now that I don't believe you when you say that there is nothing wrong. In fact, I would be quite worried if that was true."

She smiled lightly and cocked her head slightly sideways. "You know, you're the first person who's actually attempted to talk to me. Usually, an 'I'm fine' works. I was, er, actually...waiting for someone - "

She looked down, fiddling with the sleeve of her cloak. _' waiting for you' Just say it!_

" - To try and persist." She finished, looking up at him for a second.

Hermione kept her gaze down, embarrassed. "I'm not really a talkative person." She looked up suddenly. "And no, that doesn't include my constant hand up in class." She added, in a pre-emptive strike against a supposedly scathing remark that was going to, presumably, arrive.

It didn't.

Hermione smiled slightly. "You should see Lavender and Parvarti! They've tried to get me involved in 'girl talk', but to no avail, I'm afraid..." She stayed silent.

She inhaled deeply and looked at him, waiting for him to speak, to say _anything_ as long as she was not the only one talking.

As if reading her mind, he slowly replied. "I'm glad that you don't talk that much. As much as I...I hesitate to use the word 'like'...Miner-Professor McGonagall, I'd appreciate it if she once in a while just let me read in the peace of the staff room."

She looked surprised. "You...like to _read_?"

"Wizards _do_ read, you know. Despite what your young friends might think. Muggle literature had always been a favourite of mine-" He stopped talking, wondering what the hell he was doing.

She raised an eyebrow. "Muggle literature?"

As she had carried the conversation on, he decided to just let her talk for now, hoping that she would get to what was really bothering her later. "Much better than wizarding fiction, if you can call it that. They usually base it on their lives, or someone else's with a little 'twist' to the tale..." He rolled his eyes slightly.

"Well, I like Pride and Prejudice personally. It's by a woman called Jane Austen."

"Yes, I know. Sense and Sensibility is far better in my opinion. Brandon is my kind of man…" He shut up straight after he said that. _What am I doing?_

He looked at her suddenly. "You know, if someone told me a month ago that I would be in my chambers discussing muggle literature with the only person in Hogwarts' student body who voluntarily picked up a book - and not just because she was now Head Girl - and was actually... _enjoying_...myself, I think I would have hexed them where they stood..." He studied her, a contemplative look on his face.

She was amazed at his honesty and from the look on his face so was he. Hermione could tell that he was trying hard to make her feel better, which was quite sweet of him really, when he could have just sent her packing to Dumbledore's office.

His chin was now resting in his hand as it was propped up on his knee, he looked at her. He seemed to have relaxed somewhat in her presence. Then again, these were his rooms, this was his territory. "Why did you run off earlier?"

She sighed. _Time to face the music I guess..._

Hermione had no wish to tell him but decided it was unfair to make him do all the work. "I don't really know…It's a lot of things. At the moment, I guess it's the shock of being Head Girl. I mean, the people around me always said I would, but there's all the other girls, what was the likelihood of _me_ being Head Girl?"

She laughed nervously. He raised a sceptical eyebrow.

"Then...well, I guess it was all because of what's happened recently. I thought you'd all done this out of pity. 'Oh, poor Hermione, she needs cheering up, lets make her Head Girl'. That's what really pissed me off...Then when I ran off, I was just running blindly around the school for a while, until I came here. When I did, I re-read the letter and thought how proud my mother would have been."

She paused for a minute thinking of her mother again and inhaled deeply to stop the tears she could feel from coming.

Then that lead to her being disappointed because I'd only got the place because of pity. Her being upset made me upset...and it just kept going round and round in circles.

Then I had a headache, but I didn't know if you had any potions in here, so I lay down for a minute, to see if it would go away on its own...only, it wasn't just a minute..."

Hermione failed to realise that despite her best efforts she had in fact started crying during her babbling. As she lightly dabbed her tears, she looked up at Severus, who was looking at her strangely. "I don't know what you do to me Professor, but for some reason, I just blurt things out...I'm sorry..." She ended in a hurried, mumbling tone. She looked down at her suddenly incredibly interesting watch and there was silence for a few moments. Hermione honestly thought he was about to get up and open the door for her.

"Severus."

Hermione looked up. He had not consoled her, hugged her, or attempted to make her feel better in any way. He had just listened, and asked her to call him by his name. And she was ridiculously happy.

She was shocked as he delicately moved a hand to her cheek in order to wipe away a rogue tear.

She unconsciously closed her eyes and moved into his hand, which stayed on her cheek a little longer than was really necessary.

Regrettably he moved his hand away and spoke, "You know, we don't give important places in Hogwarts out of pity. Trust me. We usually decide who is going to be Head Boy and Girl about halfway through their sixth year."

He stopped to look at how she was taking this. "We assess those two students, and the other candidates, to see if they work well, communicate with others, help others among other things. After which, if we still think that the two main students are up to it, they are informed of their new roles. Otherwise, we decide from the other candidates.

So you see, 'pity' had nothing to do with it. Although, I must confess, we were beginning to question whether or not you'd be up to it. You can thank Minerva for sticking up for you - otherwise known as yelling at me - even though I actually agreed with her for once."

"Oh." She blushed. _I'm doing an awful lot of blushing lately._ "So I guess I didn't need to do the whole running-around-the-school-possessed thing then, huh?"

He smiled lightly at her "No. I think not."

"Did you mean it?"

"Did I mean what?" Replied Severus, startled after their companionable silence.

_What am I doing!_

"What you said yesterday. Well, last night."

Severus looked away.

She took a deep breath. "Are you...attracted...to me?" She said, attempting for some unknown reason, to pursue the subject. Hermione felt the well known scarlet blush rise in her cheeks, causing her to feel hotter than usual.

When she looked away, she failed to notice the look of longing and affection that Severus shyly sent her way.

He turned away again, looking at the suddenly very interesting floor.

"I think so."

Ok, so it was hardly the declaration of undying love that she had secretly been rather hoping for, but then again, this was Severus Snape not a Mills and Boon character.

She looked up slowly, cheeks burning red, and stared into his eyes. She raised an eyebrow, attempting to look indifferent but failing miserably. "You _think_ so?"

He took a deep breath and gave her an apologetic look. "I'm...not exactly experienced in the matters of the heart... my parents were far from affectionate when I was young. Coming here as an eleven year old greasy-haired loner with an unhealthy obsession with blowing cauldrons up for the sake of it, more hindered than helped my credibility with the opposite sex."

She smiled slightly, still not really looking him in the eye. "I know what you mean. A bushy haired, big toothed know-it-all who'd rather read a book than a teen magazine isn't exactly a guys idea of perfection. I haven't really changed much. My father's attitude towards me pretty much fucked up any chance I ever had with a man." She suddenly realised what she had said and began to shrink in her chair.

"No. That's not true. I think you're very...Gryffindor. I mean that as a compliment, for once." He quirked his eyebrow and smiled wryly. "You are very brave for living with your father for as long as you did. I've often wondered why you were never placed in Ravenclaw..."

She smiled, this time finally looking him in the eye. "You aren't so bad yourself you know..." A mischievous smile crept up on her face.

He laughed a deep baritone laugh that sent shivers down Hermione's spine. Suddenly very conscious with the fact that they were alone in his _bedroom_ with a very small amount of space between them, Hermione tried to casually move away, pushing her

chair back slightly. Unfortunately it had far from the desired affect.

Her chair caught on the rug behind her, sending her body forwards towards Severus. He caught her and gently pulled her up to her feet. She smiled sheepishly. "Oops."

The next thing she knew, his lips were coming towards hers slowly, as if giving her time to move away. But she found that she was sure about this, for the first time ever. She closed her eyes and kissed him.

Properly this time.

She began to move her hands behind his head, entwining her fingers with his silky hair, as his own hands encircled her waist, making her nerves feel as though they were on fire just by his touch.

When they came apart, they lingered slowly, each taking every detail about the other as quickly and precisely as they could.

He smiled at her, unknowingly sending shivers down her spine. "Ok. I _am_ attracted to you." He said.

A/N: Yes, the Brandon thing being his 'kind of man' is a sad joke for those who know that Alan Rickman played Colonel Brandon in the film version of Sense and Sensibility.


	11. Alone

**A Rose By Any Other Name.**

_By Kes._

**_Disclaimer: _** Ok, you know the drill. I don't own diddly-squat.

Hermione glanced nervously around the Great Hall which was slowly filling up with students. The first years were still not here, thankfully.

After their 'moment' a couple of days ago, Hermione and Severus had had very little time to be alone. Lessons had to be planned, last minute forgotten ingredients had to be purchased, and general school _stuff_ had to be sorted out. Hermione, meanwhile, had to finish decorating her room whilst wondering who the Head Boy was. Of course, she had managed to get the name from Professor Dumbledore. She was rather shocked at who it was, but pleased none the less.

She risked a flitting glance at the large ornate table at the head of the room, and saw Severus looking back at her. He smiled slightly, enough for only her to see. She quirked an eyebrow in reply, smiled quickly and turned away to the sound of her name being called.

"Hermione! Hey, Hermione!"

Ron practically ran to her place at the table, much to the annoyance of everyone around them. He suddenly stopped awkwardly in front of her. "Um...you all right?" She blinked. Her mother. They had only just got the letter. Just as she was beginning to heal and move on, here they were opening up wounds.

But she could not blame them.

"Er, yeah, I think so Ron. Thanks." She smiled gratefully at him and Harry in turn as he arrived at the table.

She stood up, and embraced the duo in a group hug strong enough to cause Hagrid to hyperventilate. Harry patted her back rhythmically, whilst simultaneously apologising.

"I'm really sorry we couldn't be there for you Herm. We only got the letter last week, and we couldn't come back early..." She waved off his apology. "It's all right, really. Besides, I've had lots of support from...people..." Harry and Ron exchanged quizzical looks and shrugged.

They sat down, Ron climbing over to the other side of the table, after which he received a stern glance from Professor McGonagall who was currently walking up with the first years, he grinned sheepishly at her. "Herm." He whispered. "Why didn't you tell us...about, you know, your Dad... we had no idea what it was like for you at home..."

She looked at them both sadly. "What would you have done?"

For once Ron had no reply he could not comprehend such a home life. Harry had told him some of what had gone on at his uncle's house but had also been shady. Ron suddenly wanted his mum.

They stayed silent for a moment, when they heard Professor Dumbledore's voice magically echoing throughout the hall. "Welcome back to Hogwarts one and all, especially those new to our ranks..." He smiled kindly, eyes twinkling behind his half-moon glasses at the nervous first years.

"Now, I'd like to make a couple of announcements. Our caretaker, Mr Filch, has asked me to remind you that the Forbidden Forest is exactly that. Forbidden. It is so for a reason, so please take care. Also, on a more pleasant note, I'd like to introduce you all to the new Head Girl and Boy of Hogwarts school, Miss Hermione Granger-"

He nodded at Hermione, who smiled nervously at the staring crowd.

" - And Mr Neville Longbottom." Neville glanced nervously about as he saw the wide-eyed stares of his peers. He grinned self consciously, and hesitantly fingered his Head Boy badge, the silver gleaming in the sunlight, as if in proof of its presence on Neville's robes.

Hermione smiled at Neville. _If only people knew - hell, if only Neville knew - that it was Severus who recommended him for Head Boy._ Hermione mused. _He thought that he was 'very Gryffindor'. After all, he's somehow managed to turn up to every single potions lesson, knowing full well his fate, and has gone through six years of Snape without any real psychological damage._

As the student body clapped politely, Hermione was drawn back to the present; she grinned at Harry and Ron, and dared a quick look at Severus who winked slightly.

"Now, when I call your name..." Professor McGonagall said to the hyperventilating first years when the clapping had died down.

"...you shall come up here, and be sorted into your houses by the sorting hat. It will select from Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin..."

The dinner had gone well, as had the sorting. Hermione was pleased to see that a muggle-born had managed to be sorted into Slytherin. Strange as it was, it meant that Slytherin were beginning to be seen in a new light, especially as the 'Death Eaters in training' as the dream team had named them, had mainly turned out to be spies. Unfortunately, this had not included Malfoy Junior. His place was still an enigma. Many had been forced to testify against their own parents. They had a courage and honour unique to their house.

It was now midnight. Hermione had gone to a very quick meeting with Neville as Head Girl and Boy to see Dumbledore regarding their new duties, after which she had gone to catch up with gossip. After seeing the sympathetic glances from her peers as Ron and Harry had systematically told everyone - an agreed and edited - version of what had happened to Hermione during the summer, Hermione had decided that the sympathy was a little too much for her to handle for now, and had thus made her excuses to go to bed.

She had a quick shower, magically dried her hair, put on her old crimson-red nightdress and slipped into her new bed.

It was the first time she ha slept in this bed, having stayed in the infirmary over the holidays so that Poppy could keep an eye on her. Now she was alone.

So very alone.

Becoming increasingly aware of the extent of her loneliness, Hermione lit a small fire in an attempt to lighten the frightening atmosphere in her room. But to no avail.

She nervously crept out of bed, put her dressing gown on, and began to pace around her room. _This is ridiculous! I'm scared of sleeping alone! I've never been like this before, why now? But still, I don't want to be alone...I can't go to see Neville, he's probably asleep by now, and he's happy enough by himself, he doesn't need me bringing his mood down. Harry and Ron? No! Their well-meant sympathy is somewhat suffocating at the moment. I'd be on yet another suicide watch whilst being stalked by those two for at least a week..._ She stopped pacing in front of the lit fire. As a new security precaution, her room had been attached to the private floo network of the school. She had access to all the teachers' private quarters and the Great Hall.

_That's it. _

_I'm going._

She purposefully grabbed a handful of floo powder from an ornate jar on the fireplace and tossed it into the fireplace. "Severus Snape's private quarters."

Severus awoke in his chair in front of the fire with a book on his lap, forgotten. As his blurred vision cleared, he saw a vision of beauty in front of him. And she looked…scared.

He looked confused, wincing in the harsh light of the fire. "Hermione?"

"I don't want to be alone..."

She looked down at the floor, blushing slightly.

"It's the first time I've slept in a room on my own...since...well, you know...and it's a little daunting. Absurd, I know, but I was wondering if I could stay with you...I'll sleep on the sofa, obviously, but I just don't want to be alone..." A singular rogue sob escaped her lips.

"You're not being absurd. It's perfectly normal not to want to be alone after what you've been through. And there is no way you are going to sleep on the sofa, it's too small to sleep on anyway. What kind of a gentleman would I be if I let you do that?"

He took her by the elbow and gently guided her to his bedroom.

"Do you sleep on the left or the right?"

"Oh! I don't know...besides, I'll sleep on the sofa."

"Now you _are_ being absurd. Sit." He pointed to the edge of the bed.

She sat.

He went to get changed into his nightclothes and came out of the bathroom.

In black...silk?...boxers.

And no top...

Revealing a rather - ok, _very_ - nice torso.

_Do not think strawberries, and definitely do not think cream._

Hermione gaped and inhaled deeply suddenly thinking that perhaps she would be better off in her bed. _This is going to be a long night..._

He looked at her and smiled shyly, suddenly aware that he was half naked in front of a woman. His complete lack of confidence had made him believe that he was unattractive to women on any level but he could see in Hermione's eyes that this perhaps was no longer the case.

She practically leapt off the bed. "You...you know what, I think I'll pass on this. I'm sure I can sleep in my own room..." _That gorgeous image of a half-naked man blushing has actually been burned into my memory. I didn't know that was possible..._

He gently pushed her onto the bed, and lifted her feet so that she was lying down. He walked around to the other side and lay down himself; waving his wand one last time over the bed sheets, levitating them to lay themselves over the couple, and put his wand on the table.

He hesitantly made his way towards her shivering form, her dressing gown now hanging on the door knob. He encapsulated her in his arms, gently rubbing her arm as he placed his chin on top of her head, making her look as if she had grown an extra one. He smiled.

"Comfy?"

"Very."

They fell asleep in each others arms...

**_A/N:_** Pure sap, yes, but don't say you don't love it.


	12. The real goodbye

**A Rose By Any Other Name.**

_By Kes._

**_Disclaimer: _**As per usual, I do not own the HP-Verse or Alan Rickman.

The first week of term had passed rather uneventfully for Hermione. She had seen Severus every couple of nights, but had managed to sleep on her own for the most part. Or so she thought. Severus had been keeping an eye on her, to make sure she was all right via the house elves. Since they were able to get around without being noticed, they seemed to be the natural choice.

Now, however, it was Saturday.

Hermione had decided to go and see her mother's grave for the first time.

She took a deep breath and looked in the mirror.

All black.

There was a knock on the door.

"C-come in." She answered, rather shakily.

Harry, Ron and Ginny came nervously into the room, all self-consciously plucking off non-existent pieces of fluff off their black robes in order to avoid eye contact.

Hermione smiled slightly, a worried smile, and put on her black robe as well as her new black heels. She accio-ed the flowers: two roses, one red and one black and a small collection of her mother's favourites. It was a rather eclectic mix, but it was beautiful just the same.

"The flowers are lovely, mione." Said Harry.

"Yeah, especially those two roses, they complement each other...sort of" Commented Ron. He gave up speaking, feeling incredibly awkward.

"You okay?" This came from Ginny.

Hermione nodded a rather unconvincing nod; Ginny sighed, and encapsulated her into a gentle friendly hug. They both broke the embrace, somewhat tearful but smiling gently.

Realising that no one had said much so far, Hermione braced herself, and took a deep breath.

"Right. Let's go." She smiled weakly.

They walked silently through the abnormally deserted common room – thanks to Harry and Ron - and walked down the stairs. As Harry, Ron and Ginny walked towards the huge double doors of the entrance, Hermione paused and started to walk towards the dungeons.

"Where are you going?" Asked Ginny.

"To get Sev-Snape. He has to come...school regulations, besides, Professor McGonagall is busy." She replied a little hastily. It was all a lie. She wanted him to come, and he had agreed before she had even tried to nervously ask.

"Oh...right." Replied Harry, not quite convinced, but he let it go. For some reason he felt that Hermione had not told them all of what had happened over the summer.

Severus joined the gang, a little surprised that the Weasley's were there. Then, realising his own stupidity, he nodded slightly to each of them.

Ron was shocked.

Snape was being civil?

Why did he never have a wizard camera when he needed one? He could have that neutral expression - better than one of pure hatred - framed. Better still, published in the Daily Prophet...

_This isn't Snape. This is some sort of clone. It has to be. Polyjuice potion?_

Severus looked at Hermione with forged soul-less eyes.

"Miss Granger. How are you feeling?"

"I...I don't know. She looked down at the ground sorrowfully. "Can we just...go?"

He nodded, raising an inquisitive eyebrow at Ron and Harry's gaping mouths, and Ginny's subsequent dramatic eye-rolling and nudging.

_Hermione was right. Being polite is much more fun._ He thought to himself.

After apparating from Hogwarts to the Wizarding cemetery - having a witch daughter enabled Anne Granger the right to be buried here - they carefully searched the gravestones. After the war, there had been a number of deaths, and so picking out a relatively new one out of the many was difficult. So now they had to find the buried form of Hermione's mother.

Her ashes, anyway.

It was rather unusual to _bury_ the cremated remains of someone, as it lost the point of a cremation, but since Hermione had not known exactly her mother's wishes, she decided to settle on this, half way between the two options.

And there it was.

The gravestone with her mother's name on it.

The shock to her system was overwhelming. Although she knew full well that it was here, it was the fact that she could see it that scared her. It was physically here, right in front of her. She started to cry, sobs wracking her body.

Severus fought the urge to comfort her. A teacher could not do that. Not here, not now. Later. He promised himself that he would comfort her later, in privacy.

But it hurt him. He thought he would never have to see a child bury their parent. That was why he had fought against Voldemort.

Harry delicately put an arm around her shoulder, whilst the Weasley's looked at each other, at a loss. They decided to leave the two mother-less friends together in their shared pain.

However, Hermione saw it differently.

She shrugged off Harry's arm in a friendly sort of way, and went to Severus, almost automatically.

_I guess our plan isn't working then._

His sarcasm did nothing to hide the relief he felt that she had gone to him. He encapsulated her into his arms, and whispered into her ear, comfortingly. The others looked on, gob-smacked. Ron looked furious. It was well known that he still felt for her. He was about to yell at Snape when Harry held him back.

"Not now. This _isn't_ the time. Not for your immature hormonal feelings. She's moved on." He looked sternly at the red-head, who eventually relaxed under his firm grip.

Harry whispered harshly in his friend's ear. "He was the 'people' she'd got help from over the summer. Get it?"

Ron nodded dumbly, still to in awe of the fact that a man old enough to be her father, the evilest man in Hogwarts had won her heart over him...or maybe they were just friends. Ron hoped so.

Hermione readied herself and turned around, not seeing the looks on her friends faces. She stumbled forward, slightly off-balance, and knelt down by the grave. She slowly placed each flower, singularly, saying something for each one that no one else could hear.

After that, she cleared her throat and spoke softly. The others could just about hear her:

"I'm sorry I haven't come to see you mum, but I've been trying to keep myself busy. I'm Head Girl now! Neville's Head Boy! Professor Snape suggested him. I know, I was shocked too, when I first heard.

I've started the second part of my NEWTS courses. I took Potions, Charms, Herbology, Arithmancy and DADA in the end. I know, I know, two more than usual for the final year. I was supposed to drop one last year, let alone this, I know, but still, you know me. Besides, I want to keep busy.

Dad got life. In Azkaban. How good is that? We're finally free from that no-good son of a bitch." She spat out the words, her hatred clearly evident.

"No. I'm free." Her entire tone changed.

"Oh my god. I'm so sorry! I'm the only one who's all right...you're all alone. You suffered the most, and I'm complaining! Oh my god...mum...I'm so sorry."

She began to cry. The trio moved forward to comfort her, Severus stood protectively in front of them, his back to Hermione, and whispered quietly. "Let her have her cry out. She needs to get this off her chest." They nodded silently, Hermione carried on, oblivious.

"Mum. I promise you now. I'll do everything in my power to make sure his life is as horrid and unbearable as he made ours. I love you mum. I miss you!

I miss you so much mum..."

Hermione wiped her bleary red eyes on the sleeve of her cloak, and arose silently, and stared at the grave for a few moments:

ANNE PATRICIA GRANGER

1956-2002

Mother of Hermione Granger

"No matter what happens, they cannot

destroy our spirit, only make it stronger

than before, helping us to carry on,

determinedly."

She turned around shakily, attempting a weak smile. Realisation suddenly dawned on her. She had hugged Severus. In front of the others. But right now she found that she did not care at all.

Ginny saw her friend's horror-stricken face. "Group hug!" Harry and Ron grinned slightly and embraced each other and Ginny, whilst going over to Hermione.

Severus once again felt out of place with over-hormonal teenagers in public spaces - or any spaces, actually - the sight of them all hugging the life out of each other, was rather disconcerting.

_I wish I'd had that at school._

He soon changed his mind at the thought of either Lucius Malfoy or Remus Lupin and Sirius Black hugging him. _Perhaps not._

Severus looked up from his suddenly very interesting hands to see Harry staring at him over Hermione's shoulder. He looked blatantly from Severus to Hermione, and back again. He raised his eyebrow questioningly, then smiled slightly.

_Shit. He knows._ Severus returned to looking at his once again enthralling hands, attempting to invoke the bastard-potions-master-Snape.

Where was it?

He _could_ however, find Severus-who-cares-about-Hermione-but-still-wants-to-throttle-her-friends.

Hermione started to cry.

"Thank you" she whispered.

**_A/N:_** That quotation on Anne's gravestone isn't actually a quotation. I just made it up as I couldn't think of any poignant ones.


	13. No going back

**A Rose By Any Other Name.**

_By Kes._

**_Disclaimer: _**As normal I don't own it.

Hermione was a little depressed for a few days after the visit to her mothers' grave, as expected. The others gave her a little distance as hinted by Severus through Harry through a glare during class.

Severus had managed to slip the two of them to Hogsmede a few of times in the past fortnight. _Finally, a perk of me being a loner, and Hermione being a bookworm..._

They went out every few nights to various places, Severus mercifully went unrecognised.

Severus pulled out of the chair "madame?" He said playfully. Hermione grinned and cocked an eyebrow "madem_oiselle_". She smiled and sat down.

"Oh! Of course, I'm sorry 'mademoiselle'."

They went to a variety of restaurants in Hosmede and beyond. They occasionally went to somewhere 'muggle'. Each time, however, Severus paid.

They ended each 'date' by slipping to Hermione's room via Harry's invisibility cloak that he had let her borrow – by this time knowing full well why. Each time Severus was exceedingly formal and raised her hand to his lips and kissed it. Hermione was in heaven.

The last date however, went a little differently.

"Do you - do you want to come in?" Hermione blushed slightly.

"All right." He smiled gently sensing his own nervousness reflected in her voice.

She cleared her throat nervously, and opened the door to her rooms. They were decorated in light blues and pinks...hardly any red.

She sat down at her desk and indicated for him to do the same, he sat whilst she conjured some coffee _how cliché…_

"So..."

"So..."

Hermione smiled.

He looked at her intensely, his obsidian eyes boring into her with a fierceness that she had never encountered.

"Can I ask you something?" She looked at him nervously.

He looked curiously at her and raised an inquisitive eyebrow, signalling that she could continue.

Hermione looked at her hands, unable to meet his eyes. "Why did Madame Pomfrey say that you would be able to understand what I'd...been through...better than everyone else?" She looked up from her hands to see him staring at her again. He sighed deeply.

"Hermione, you know for a fact that I do not divulge that kind of information in just anyone...however, I feel I must admit that _you_ are not 'just anyone'." She smiled at him.

He inhaled deeply and began his story: "Ever since I can remember, my father used his wand more often on me than on anything else in the house. If something went wrong at work, it was Severus' fault, if my dad's stocks in something went down, it was my fault, if the Dark Lord was displeased, it was my fault. And he'd always turn on me.

My first real memory was when I was about four. I heard my mother scream and then there would be a pale blue light and it would hit me on the shoulder. It hurt, I cried for hours afterwards.

My father would go away for days on end, and turn up unexpectedly. This was years before Voldemort's first rising, before I joined. My mother decided that my life at school would be hard - and she was right - and so she taught me half of what I needed to know for my entire education before I even went. I couldn't get a wand, but I knew the theory behind all of them. My love was potions, naturally. I could do almost anything my mother put in front of me. It was magic, but this type was legal for me to do."

He looked at Hermione and looked at her, as though gaining strength from her awed silence.

"Quidditch was brilliant as well. I learned how to play as a chaser, and I was able to fly practically before I could write. In my slightly later years prior to Hgowarts, I'd fly for hours on end, within my father's sight - it was safer that way - loving the feeling of the wind in my hair, the exhilaration of the air in my face, having to constantly control the broom.

In my years at Hogwarts, I slowly realised my fate. A Death Eater. In a way, I wasn't surprised. I wanted to. If it made my life easier, if it meant my father wouldn't aim his wand threateningly at me every time I sneezed." He shivered involuntarily at the memory, a momentary weakness.

"In my 6th year, on my 17th birthday, I was summoned by my father to Hogsmede, with a...I hesistate to use the word friend...more an 'acquaintance'...Malfoy senior. He was a Death Eater. He was here to make sure I did the job.

The Dark Lord didn't intimidate me. I didn't even flinch when the scalding hot iron seared my tender flesh on my arm, brandishing me forever. I didn't feel it because I was numb. I couldn't feel anything at all."

Hermione clasped his hand in hers, silently from across the table, not wanting to stop his monologue that must pain him to tell her.

"On the holiday between sixth and seventh year, I went home, as usual, but my father seemed to be annoyed with me to an extreme. I lived in permanent fear, every time I moved a muscle - and every time I didn't - he'd crucio me.

One day, in the middle of the holidays, he tried to use a new spell he'd been devising. Only this time, it hit the wrong target. My mother, fed up with the constant beatings of her only son and to herself by her supposedly loving husband was too much to bear.

She blocked the curse. She died instantly. I was the last thing she saw. She was smiling at me, a sad smile.

That's why I don't like 'foolish wand waving'.

For a few years, I decided to try and work the Death Eaters, try and break them down from the inside. My father somehow managed to convince the authorities that my mother died due to a 'terrible accident'. My father was killed my Lord Voldemort two years after my final year.

The Dark Lord tried to see me suffer with a crucio curse. I felt nothing. I think he was threatened by my lack of feeling. He tried to kill Lily. Potter's mother. When he did that, I went to Dumbledore.

I told him of my inner dealing with the Death Eaters, and of the threat to Lily. He took me in and asked me to work as a spy. And I did, until the day of Voldemort's demise."

He looked up from their intertwined hands, seeing Hermione's tear-glistened eyes. Her lip was quivering, attempting not to cry. She said nothing, so Severus got up slowly.

He knelt down by her chair. "I know what you are going through. I can help you through this, okay?"

"No."

He looked slightly shocked.

She gently pushed him slightly out of her way and knelt beside him quietly. "We can help each other." She smiled, unshed tears glistening.

Two sets of eyes stared at each other for what seemed to be an eternity. Slowly and hesitantly, Severus broke the gap between them and kissed her.

A sympathetic kiss soon escalated into a passionate embrace, although not quite comfortable with them both kneeling on the floor.

Severus quickly dragged them both up off the floor and began kissing Hermione's neck and caressing the bare skin behind her ear and moved his hand so that he could smell her hair, she smiled into his chest and dragged his head towards her own.

"No." Severus stopped abruptly, becoming increasingly aware of the fact that his hand was slowly making its own way towards the buttons on her blouse.

"I can't take advantage of you in this state, Hermione. You'd never forgive me, and I know for a fact that I'd never be able to forgive myself. I think it would be best if I left you for tonight." He smiled down at her, eyes blazing with his illicit passion for her, carefully glazed with something resembling control.

Hermione looked at him, almost pleadingly. "No. Please, stay - " He began to protest. " - Hear me out Sev. I want you to stay and sleep with me..." She blushed. "Um...in the same bed, but not...you know...not just yet anyway." She grinned and went to the bathroom to get changed, leaving a shocked Severus Snape in her wake.

_'Sev'? What kind of name is that?_


	14. Meet The Parents

**A Rose By Any Other Name.**

_By Kes._

**_Disclaimer:_** Yo tengo nada.

Severus and Hermione awoke at 6:30 the following morning, and Severus left, so as not to be suspicious.

He opened the door to the main hallway quietly. Professor McGonagall's room was nearby somewhere, although unsure where, the one thing he was sure of what that he did not want to face the irate Scot first thing in the morning.

As Severus slinked about like a cat, he sighed in relief as he got to the portkey that only Hermione and Neville were supposed to know about in the student body - it transported you to just outside the Gryffindor Common room, but you could not go in the same way. He took out his wand, raising it to tap the appropriate brick.

"Severus Snape!" A voice hissed disturbingly snake-like in the darkness.

Severus, now in full Death-Eater-reformed-mode whirled around in a defensive stance, ready to hex anything that looked remotely suspicious.

Minerva McGonagall stood in her doorway, as prim and proper as always, with a raised eyebrow a la Severus and an accusing stare.

"_What_, pray tell, were you _doing_ in my Head Girls' rooms?"

For the first time ever, Severus Snape didn't know what to say, as "What does it look like?" hardly seemed appropriate...

He felt like a seventh year again _no, make that a first year..._

"Are you...pursuing a _relationship_ with Miss Granger?"

Severus felt his cheeks blushing, although he was sure they were as pale as ever. He was unused to talking about such private matters with Minerva - or anyone else for that matter.

He muttered something incomprehensible, and she was thankfully, somehow able to interpret it.

"Oh dear Severus, she's old enough to be your daughter! Not that the age difference really matters considering the life expectancy of wizards..." She drifted off, contemplating.

He suddenly found his voice. "As I _recall_, you were one of the many hormonally-charged-teachers who _suggested_ a relationship during the summer."

"A _friendship_. Some fun. You've both had _such_ tough times; I thought it would be good for you both. I knew she'd developed a crush on you, especially with that voice of yours!" She added wistfully, blushing slightly herself as if in memory.

"My _voice_?" Said Severus, suddenly feeling a bout of self-consciousness.

She looked at him sceptically. "Surely you know what it...does..." He shook his head, totally bewildered. "I've heard people mentioning it, but as soon as I came anywhere near, they'd go quiet. So I thought it was a bad thing really, after all, my voice _is_ rather deep."

"Oh yes, I know..."

He raised an eyebrow.

She cleared her throat. "...What I mean is, you could have students wrapped around your little finger if you used that voice of yours right. Although, fending off hormonal teenage girls may be a little daunting for you at first." She grinned. "But to get back to the point, well, I don't really know about you and Hermione. I mean, she's a young girl - "

" - she's older than her classmates, and she's one of the most intelligent minds Hogwarts has seen for years."

"Well, yes, I know that. But I just don't know if she's ready for anything of this magnitude..." She glared at him suddenly. "You haven't...er...had any _physical_ 'relations' have you?" She avoided his eye, wishing that she did not need to know this.

He sighed. _So much for privacy._ "No Minerva, we haven't...we're not ready", the embarrassment suddenly escalated.

He glanced at her as she raised a sceptical eyebrow. "She's not as pure as you think she is Minerva, she's not going to lose her 'innocence' to me, and she lost it apparently to one of your moronic Gryffindors..."

"I'll kill him." She stated in a disturbingly calm voice.

"Now, now Minerva, as much as I would love to see that, please don't. After all, it takes two."

"Well yes of course, even I know that!"

Severus suddenly paled as the image - or more series of images - of Minerva... understanding...were placed firmly_ assertively..._ in his head.

He cleared his throat. "Well, yes...anyway. Do you have any objections to me dating your surrogate daughter?"

She glared at him, but then smiled. "I don't. But it's not me you have to worry about..." at Severus' puzzled look, she continued. "Albus."

"Oh."

"Quite..."


	15. Albus the Meddler

**A Rose By Any Other Name.**

_By Kes._

**_Disclaimer:_** As ever, not me.

"Come in Severus."

Severus shuddered. _I'll never get used to that._

He walked in slowly, feeling oddly like an annoying adolescent boy who was attempting chivalry by asking his date's father for permission to date the girl of his dreams.

He felt seventeen again… not that this had happened to him at that age.

"You wanted to see me Albus?" He nervously sat down in the chair that was offered. They were sitting at Albus' desk.

_Shit._

That meant business.

_Does it mean good or bad business?_

Severus uncharacteristically shuffled in his seat whilst Albus offered him a lemon drop. Too in shock to do anything, his motor functions kicked in and moved his arm in the direction of the sweet dish. With his head down, he failed to notice Albus' eyes twinkling.

"Yes, I did want to see you Severus. I've been informed by Minerva that Miss Granger and you are...pursuing a relationship?"

_Oh God, I hate this._

Severus found that his throat had closed up slightly. He cleared it and spoke. "Well, yes. That is to say, we enjoy each other's company and..."

"How far has it gone?" Albus stated bluntly.

Severus' eyes shot up, glazing with fear and rage. "Is that what you think this is? A plan to get a student in to bed!" He rose from the seat and began pacing the room. "I _had_ hoped you thought better of me than _that_, Albus."

"I'm sorry Severus, but these things need to be asked, for all of our sakes. If the Ministry were to find out about this, even the Daily Prophet, yours, mine, and Minerva's careers would be over, and as for the repercussions for Miss Granger..."

"We are well aware of the consequences." Severus replied sharply. His eyes shot back to Albus, who was looking at him kindly.

"I know you are, and so am I. In fact, I had to use muggle and magical bug spray in and around this room to ensure we didn't have any 'unwelcome guests'."

Severus looked puzzled. "Rita Skeeter?" He sat back down.

Albus nodded. "She knows something's up, you know. I don't know how, but she does, I'm sure of it. I've had a couple of 'visits' from her in her human form. She seems intent on Miss Granger. Although, she _was_ the one who discovered Miss Skeeter's...talent..."

"Pity it wasn't in writing..." Muttered Severus. However, something suddenly clicked in his mind. He rose once again from his seat.

"If she does _anything_ to hurt Hermione, I swear I'll hex her so far back down the timeline, she'll see Voldemort's conception! That ought to give her a story!"

He paced intensely up and down in front of Albus, his robe spreading out bat-like. He continued muttering what seemed like plans to himself.

"Severus Snape!" Yelled Albus. Severus looked at him, startled. "Sit down, my boy, sit down."

Reluctantly, he sat down.

"You do realise, Severus, that you are breaking school rules with this relationship?"

"You do realise, Albus, that you are breaking school rules with this conversation? You're supposed to have fired me as soon as I came through the door..." Severus replied wryly.

"Well yes, technically, but I need to know some details before I pass judgement. I'm attempting to remain impartial, but your emotional outbursts are doing nothing for my resolve."

Severus laughed.

"What, pray tell, is so funny?" Inquired Albus, eyes twinkling, despite his best efforts.

"Albus, you just used me and the word 'emotional' in the same sentence...I can be a bit angry - "

Albus coughed discreetly, to which Severus glared slightly.

"Alright, very angry, but emotional?"

"Please stay on the topic at hand Severus." Said Albus, eyes twinkling away. "If, _if_ I let Miss Granger and yourself carry on this relationship, you would have to be discreet."

Severus nodded. "Naturally."

"No one would ever be able to know...at least, not until after her graduation." He added the last part; clearly he was making this up as he went along.

"Agreed. But really Albus, what do you think I would do? Shout from the rooftops? The astronomy classroom, perhaps? That _would_ be quite ironic actually, considering Hermione absolutely _loathes_ it up there..." He added, smiling slightly to himself.

"Alright Severus, you may continue this relationship." Severus smiled gratefully and nodded. "_However_, one thing is out of place in your demeanour, and I shall have to regrettably ask you to end it. Understood?"

"Yes Headmaster."

"Good. Now, there's just one question left: Do you love her?"

Severus sat there. Bewildered. He was unsure. He could hardly believe it, he _still_ did not know!

"I...I don't know Albus." _I can feel myself blushing again...I really hope no one can actually see it. How can I not know if I love her?_

Albus smiled cryptically. "You may go."

So Severus left, somewhat deflated than before. He clicked the door shut.

"So he _does _love her!" Albus declared to an empty room.

**_A/N:_** Albus' logic will be described later on…


	16. Face The Music part one

**A Rose By Any Other Name.**

_By Kes._

**_Disclaimer:_** Mine? Nope.

"Happy Halloween!"

Ginny, somehow managing to get passed Hermione's extensive locking system, had let herself in and was currently sitting on the bed staring at a bleary-eyed Hermione.

"What the hell? Oh go away Gin, please, I'm tired!"

Ginny glared at Hermione. "No. You are getting up. It may be Saturday, but you still have to get up at some point today..." She replied, casually glancing at the clock. Hermione's eyes follwed her's and she jumped out of bed. "12.30?! Why didn't you wake me before?!"

"_Because_ I was under orders from Harry who was under orders from someone who he wouldn't say, not to wake you up until we thought it was time, and since we know what you're like, we thought you might come shopping with us?"

Slightly disorientated, Hermione glanced around the room, looking for her towel and some clothes and dashed into the bathroom. "Yeah, sure...be right back..."

Ginny pottered around Hermione's room, making her bed, shoving her dirty clothes into the basket to be taken by the house elves, tickled Crookshanks and opened the curtains. She blinked.

There was a majestic owl staring at her, slightly peeved as if it had been there a long time. She hastily opened the window to let it in. The bird flew in, deposited a letter on the bed and flew out again.

The roll of parchment opened as it was not sealed with wax:

_Dearest Hermione,_

_I hope you have had a refreshing sleep, I thought you may like one since you have already started revising a little each night for your exams which are months away. I have asked Potter Harry to let you sleep as he seems to be the only one who knows about us._

_I would like to see you some time this weekend, perhaps in Hogsmede, although that may be too risky to attempt again. We should not tempt fate as it does not seem it will always be in our favour. I told you about my discussion with Albus, and although he is very understanding, I fear others may not be. I do not want to have to ask this of you, but I feel I must request you to limit the number of people you tell about us, presuming there is an 'us'._

_I hope to see you soon, though it may not be possible I know._

_SS_

Ginny stared at the letter _wow...that is so...weird. Hermione and Snape? Although...I guess they could be a couple, I mean, it would be kinda cute in a strange and unusual way._

She was abruptly shaken out of her thoughts by the opening of a door. She hastily dropped the letter, which rolled back up of its own accord. Hermione saw this.

"It...it just opened when the owl dropped it on the bed. I didn't mean-mean to open it. I swear, I promise, honestly. But if you never want to talk to me again, I understand." Ginny was blurting out incomprehensible words as always whilst making a quick exit towards the door.

Meanwhile, Hermione had opened and quickly scanned the letter.

Hermione looked up at Ginny. "So...er...are you going to tell anyone?" She coughed nervously.

"What?" Ginny stared at her, wide eyed. "No way! You're my best friend, I thought you might need a boyfriend, I mean I obviously didn't see that person as Snape, but hey... it's your life and all that..." She paused and looked at Hermione. "Do you like him?"

Hermione smiled wistfully. "You know what, I think I do." She said shyly.

Ginny grinned. "Well, that's good enough for me! Just, don't talk about your sex life. The idea that Snape - Severus - has sex...I don't think I'm ready for that..."

"Neither am I." Hermione blushed even more.

Ginny brightened. "So you haven't...you know..."

"Not yet..."

"But you will?"

"Eventually, I think. I don't really know though. I guess if it happens, it'll just happen..."

"Right. Ok."

They sat in silence for a minute or two, contemplating, both having sat on the bed. Hermione's wet hair dripping; she absently got her wand and performed a drying charm.

"So, do you call him Severus?"

"No. I call him Professor Snape...of course I call him Severus!" She added at Ginny's semi-horrified look.

The girls giggled for a minute. "So...how far have you gone? With him, I mean."

Hermione breathed in. "Well, he has a nice chest, and no, it's not that pale actually. But that's all I've seen. Honestly. Mostly, we just talk and stuff, you know, I love hearing him talk...that voice...arhh!" She threw a pillow across to Ginny and laughed. "God, I'd kill to be able to hear that everyday for the rest of my life..."

"But you can..."

"Yeah, I suppose you're right." She smiled. "Wow..."

"What?" Ginny's eyebrows knitted together, confused.

"You like his voice too? I mean, I'd have thought you would have yelled at me!"

"Well, yeah, it has potential, and he probably uses it on you which is annoying. But I mean, if you think about it, a student dating a teacher is kind of like a porn movie plot isn't it? With that kind of gossip and you think I'd be bothered with the fact that you get horny from his voice?"

"Ginny!" Hermione stared at her friend, mortified.

"Oh come off it, I know you feel stuff like that, we all do. I mean, you lost your virginity to my brother and vice versa..."

Hermione stared at her, mortified. "How in the name of GOD do _you_ know that?! I thought that was just between me and Ron..."

"Don't get mad at him, he stupidly told Fred, Fred told George - naturally - he told me" She sighed dramatically. "-and so the circle of life is complete."

There was a knock on the door, both girls jumped. "Ginny! Mione! You in there? Ginny, you came up here an hour ago! Come on, the Quidditch supply store is open!" Ron's deep voice echoed through the room, and Ginny squealed with delight.

"Wait 'till I tell him, he'll be so pleased! He does love you, you know. At least I think he does. But he wants you to be happy..."

"No! Please, don't tell him. He'd yell at me. And you, and probably Harry too."

Ginny bristled. "Harry knows...why didn't he tell me? Oh, never mind. I guess we have to go. You _should _tell Ron you know."

"Yeah, I will...just in my own time."


	17. Face The Music part two

**A Rose By Any Other Name.**

_By Kes._

**_Disclaimer:_** Alas, 'tis not myne.

"If I hear just one more time how important these bloody exams are, I swear I'm going to kill somebody!" Ron marched down the corridor, glaring at the petrified first years.

Harry grinned and gave up attempting to catch up with Ron and walked with Hermione. "You know, I'm not sure, but I'm guessing that the stress is beginning to get to him..." Hermione laughed.

"Ron, where are you going? We've got to eat! Well I do anyway..." Hermione walked causally off into the Great Hall, whilst Harry went to fetch a fuming and panicky Ron.

As she walked into the Hall, Hermione bumped into someone. She looked up, wide eyed. "Severus! I'm sorry...are you all right?" His eyes stared at her form for a minute. "Yes Herm-Miss Granger. I am fine. Your arm..." He touched her arm lightly "Are you hurt?" She shook her head. In a lower tone, he added "I shall see you later." She shivered at the resonance of his voice as he walked into the Hall.

A little dazed by her encounter with her boyfriend-who-people-must-not-suspect, Hermione carried on walking whilst delicately touching her arm. The people around her looked a little suspicious.

As Harry and Ron walked into the Hall, Hermione felt a pair of eyes on her back. She turned around and smiled faintly at the dark haired man staring back at her. To anyone else, he would have been looking through her, until he smiled.

There was a noise at the Gryffindor table as a red head rose hurriedly from the table after seeing the couple's exchange. "Hermione!" hissed Ginny. She went across to Hermione, grabbed her arm in a seemingly friendly way so that she could move the besotted girl to her seat. Ginny looked around nervously whilst sighing dramatically and saying a little too loudly "I heard what Flitwick said, Mione. Don't worry about the exams just yet..." so that anyone who cared - who admittedly were not that many - would just think Hermione was daydreaming and panicking about the exams.

As if on cue, Hermione joined in the conversation "It's _Professor_ Flitwick, Ginny." This seemed to put enquiring minds at rest.

As they sat down at the table, the boys joined them. Ginny smiled nervously at her brother. "What was that all about?" He asked as he filled his face with a chicken wing.

With a practised feigned innocence, Ginny looked him in the eye and enquired "What was what all about?" whilst kicking Hermione's leg severely under the table. Hermione had the grace to blush and answer Ron. "Oh, I felt ill, Ginny just thought that I should sit down and have something to eat. I haven't had that much today..."

"Are you okay? Would you like to go and see Madame Pomfrey?" Ron cast a concerned gaze at her and swallowed his chicken.

"I'm fine, don't worry about me. You've got to get ready, or have you forgotten that you and Harry have Quidditch practice?"

"Yeah yeah, I know. But it's dead boring...and the Captain's a right slave driver." He said, grinning at Harry the Captain of the team.

Harry rolled his eyes, hit Ron slightly over the head, grabbed a BLT sandwich and said "That's ten more laps around the pitch for you Weasley!" As he got up and strolled towards the doors.

Ron laughed, and began to follow Harry out of the doors. He caught up with him "Wanker!" He yelled as he ran through the doors.

"Why are boys so immature?" Enquired Ginny.

"You're asking the girl who's dating a _man_..." Replied Hermione, grinning slightly.

Ginny laughed, then sobered. "You have to start being more responsible. Both of you." She stated, as though Severus could hear her. "This is more serious than people assume. Your future career and life in the wizarding world is going to be hard enough being a muggle-born and friend of the boy who lived, without you messing it up by having an affair with you-know-who-I-mean..." She whispered.

"Gin, I'm _well aware_ of the consequences. Both of us are. And, for your information, it's not an 'affair', it's a _relationship_. You make it sound like I'm his mistress or something..."

"Well _I_ don't know the details of your sex life do I?" She grinned as she saw Hermione blush, not out of embarrassment of being 'found out', but mortification of someone even thinking about her having an intimate relationship with a man. She had thought about it, naturally, but she was intensely private.

"Anyway," Ginny carried on as if oblivious, "When are you going to tell Ron? He needs to know. And he'll find out eventually. He always does. He's Fred and George's brother...not to mention he has me as a sister...I've taught him a few tricks, such as using a text book and your wand to copy the words into your own handwriting..." She smiled, reminiscing.

"Well I know, but in case you've somehow forgotten, when you and Harry started going out, he interrogated his best friend and made him have some sort of exam, to make sure he was _suitable_ for his little sis." Replied Hermione.

Now it was Ginny's turn to blush. "He's a little over-protective, I'll grant you, but he means well...but you _will_ tell him?"

"I'll ask Se-er...you know...about it. See when he thinks I should...Not that I'm going against my feminist roots or anything..." She added at Ginny's glare.

"Good!"

She flopped lazily into the chair beside him in her room.

"Sev."

"Mmm?" He asked, eyes not leaving his book.

"Sev!" She looked at him pointedly.

"What!" He replied exasperatedly, finally lowering his book.

"Do you think I should tell Ron?"

"About what?"

She rolled her eyes. "Us, silly." She got up and started to massage his shoulders, removing the bulky black robe to reveal his black shirt underneath. His head rolled back onto her hands and he sighed.

"Yes. You should tell him. You two have history, so I guess he should know...although I remember the test that Pott - Harry had to complete before he was allowed to date Miss Weasley, so I shudder to think what I should have to do...assuming that he won't try to kill me." He smiled sleepily.

"Don't make fun of Ron, he cares about me."

"He loves you."

Hermione froze. "Yes, well maybe he does, but I doubt it's _really_ love. I _did_ go out with him for a while, remember? It's probably infatuation or something, although admittedly Lavender would be a more stereotypical person to lust after..."

"Yes I do remember you two going out. I didn't think you were a match though..."

"_You_ wonder about student romances?"

Severus grinned whilst attempting to stifle a yawn due to Hermione's shoulder massage. "Occasionally. Of course you and Weas - Ron - being together made Minerva positively ecstatic throughout the period of time. Thanks for that by the way..."

She smiled. "You're welcome. But I thought she wanted to kill him."

"Oh she did. When she found out her surrogate daughter had been tainted by a hormonal male Gryffindor...I thought it was rather funny. She'd always seen you as rather innocent I suppose, but I knew you weren't always. No one is. Except perhaps Miss Weasley..."

Hermione laughed. "Ginny?! You've _got_ to be kidding me, that girl is about as innocent as - "

In the period of time that it had taken Hermione to think up a retort, Severus had risen from his seat, turned Hermione to face him, and kissed her lightly.

She smiled slightly and murmured "charms homework" somewhat half-heartedly, and gave in to the kiss that increased in intensity.

"Forget charms." He muttered as he slid his arm around her waist and brought her closer to him. She moaned slightly and pushed her hands underneath his black shirt, feeling his warm skin beneath her fingertips.

"You wouldn't say that if it was potions..." She replied when she temporarily broke the kiss as she felt Severus' lips slowly make their way down to her throat. He laughed deeply at her comment, a sound which reverberated to her insides and she shuddered.

He looked up. "Cold?" She shook her head.

She laughed gently, "I wish..."

After a few more minutes things started getting steadily more intense, Hermione backed away. "No. Please, not yet. I'm-I'm not ready. I'm sorry..." She looked away, blushing.

Severus took her chin and turned her head towards him. "No. It's okay. I don't mind, really."

She laughed harshly, tears threatening to engulf her. "I managed to fuck Ron didn't I? What's wrong with me? Why can't I...you know...with you?"

He smiled slightly. "Does it matter? We are both extremely private people, and I'm not as ahead as you are in a matter of tallying you know..." It was his turn to look embarrassed, so he sat down, avoiding her eye. Suddenly he wondered why the hell he had spoken at all.

"Really? How many women have you...er...had sex...made love...whatever with?"

"Three."

She stared. "Really?"

Severus sighed. "When I was your age, Voldemort was rising. Most Death Eaters - ie, Malfoy - idea of a lover was a poor muggle girl, and in the second rising, it was poor muggle girls old enough to be their daughters. I've...'made love' to two women, my first when I was about your age. The second was a few years after that..."

Hermione sat down. "And the third?"

"Was a mistake..."

When Severus realised that Hermione wasn't going to intervene, he continued.

"I was forced to...rape a young muggle girl...by the name of Eliza Driftwood. She was one of the reasons that I had to leave the DE. I'd managed to prevent from having to 'involve' myself with the DE's more _vulgar _obsessions by keeping up the facade of being power hungry and trying to work my way up the ladder, and so I was excused from having to 'perform'. But Malfoy made me do it..."

He was silent for a long time afterwards, not looking at anything, just staring as if in memory.

"My two twin sisters. They were older than the girl, they were in their seventh year when I was in my first. But I still remembered them at the age of the girl. I kept thinking that some young man was at home waiting for his elder sister to return. But she never did. I was the last thing she saw. All I could do was say sorry as she lost consciousness for the last time..."

His eyes glistened slightly. "Even Albus doesn't know. I've never told anyone. There hasn't been anyone since her. I couldn't do it. I keep feeling that I might hurt someone, that they might not want to..."

"You'll never hurt anyone. You won't hurt me. You stopped when I asked you to. We'll be okay. I mean, we're both messed up, and we're both working through it. Together. Okay?"

Her eyes too began to glisten with unshed tears as she sat on his lap and they both slowly fell asleep entwined together by the fire.


	18. Almost Time To Dance

**A Rose By Any Other Name.**

_By Kes._

**_Disclaimer:_** Not mine, never will be, get over it. I have. Just about... :-D

"It's the last week before the holidays! I can't believe how happy I am!" Ron was practically floating in mid air as he said this, whilst munching on some toast in the Great Hall.

"But we're staying here...so it doesn't matter." Ginny stared at her brother blankly.

"Well yeah, but I mean its _Christmas_ so no matter where you are, you're always gonna be happy, right?" He seemed determined.

A hush fell over the Hall as Professor Dumbledore rose from his seat.

"As you all know, we have been planning a surprise for you all. It was the idea of our Head Student team, Miss Granger and Mr Longbottom, as the dance during the Triwizard tournament seemed so popular. Therefore, we shall be conducting a Christmas Ball on Christmas day since so many of you are staying.

"The ball shall be held here, in the Great Hall, which will be out of bounds after Christmas lunch so that we can prepare the dance area. The ball shall start at about 7.30. All students are welcome. However, teachers have the right to punish students by not allowing them to attend."

There was a collective gasp and murmuring amongst the students and Severus felt the eyes of all of them look fleetingly at him with worried expressions.

"Dates are not necessary, especially amongst the younger years as we feel that eleven is a little too young to be pursuing fellow students." His eyes glinted.

The first and second years looked annoyed, but Hermione saw the logic in Professor Dumbledore's statement.

"Oi, Gin." Harry called, once Professor Dumbledore had sat back down.

"Yeah..." Not looking at him, but at her friend Emily, a fellow Gryffindor.

"Wanna go with me?"

She looked at him briefly, "Yeah alright."

Harry grinned.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Always the romantic..." she laughed.

"Well she's my girlfriend isn't she? I don't need to be all gushy now...well, maybe occasionally. Anyway, who do you want to go with?"

Hermione sighed. "You _know_ who I _want_ to go with Harry..." She cast a glance at Severus from her seat and saw him look at her, feeling her eyes upon him. She smiled slightly, and he nodded. They both knew that they would be unable to dance together unless she wanted to be expelled and for him to get fired. "But I can't. 'Improper conduct' and all that..."

"Well, Ron hasn't asked anyone yet. Don't tell him I told you this otherwise he'll kill me, but I think he wants to go with you, but he suspects that you're going out with someone, he keeps asking me who I think it is! I just say it's probably some guy in Ravenclaw, and now he's giving them all the evil eye. I thought you were going to tell him, Mione."

"I will, honestly."

"You said that at Halloween!"

Hermione shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "Well, yes, I suppose that's true. I just don't know how to tell him. I mean, if I agree to go with him, I'll have to let him know that I'm not interested in him in _that_ way, and I'll have to tell him why and for God's sake, it's Christmas!"

"I know Herm, I understand, really I do. But, well...look, I'll tell you what. Me and Ginny will be there when you tell him, okay? Try and calm him down a bit. Tell Sna-Severus that he'll have to keep on his guard. I don't care what evil organisation he used to be in, Ron can be very good with paralysis hexes when he wants to be..."

She smiled nervously. "But won't that make him angrier? That you two knew before him?"

"He'll find out somehow, people always do. It's just one of those things, but he'll be seriously pissed off later on if he finds out that you didn't tell him in the first place that we knew."

"Yeah I suppose..."

"Ron."

"Yeah?" He looked up from his charms essay. "Look you guys, I'm doing my homework early. And voluntarily. Hermione hasn't even started it yet!" He put down his quill and began to eat a chocolate frog after stopping it from hopping away to freedom.

"That's because I've already done it Ron..." She smiled nervously. "Anyway...I er, wanted to talk to you about er...me and my sort of boyfriend." She babbled, not looking him in the eye.

Ron rose in his seat, his interest peaked. "Who is it?" He asked in a deceptively calm voice, the essay now forgotten. Hermione, glad that it was snowing outside and thus hardly anyone around, began to think how to approach the subject.

_Oh fuck it, just say it..._ She braced herself.

"Severus Snape." She closed her eyes, heart beating a mile a minute and her hand defensively holding a tight grip on her wand.

Ron laughed.

"Yeah right, what would you see in that greasy old git, Mione?" He laughed and shook his head. Until he saw Hermione's face.

"Oh. My. God. You're fucking Snape?! That's disgusting!"

"No I am not Ronald Weasley! He's my boyfriend...sort of...'boyfriend' doesn't really sound right with him..."

"You said it...how could you Mione? I thought you liked me? I thought you were my friend!" He was up and shouting now, his face as red as his hair, the freckles disappeared. Hermione slapped him, then backed away, shocked at her own daring.

Harry stood up suddenly but managed to keep a calm-sounding voice. "This isn't about _you_ Ron, this is about Hermione. She's allowed to make her own choices."

Ron looked at Harry, surprised, as he'd totally forgotten that he was there. Ron looked darkly at Hermione. "How long has he known?"

"They've known for a while..."

" 'They' ?"

Ginny waved nervously at her brother, consciously keeping a little behind Harry.

"Well this is just great isn't it?" Ron flopped down into his chair. "Why didn't you tell me before?"

Hermione laughed slightly. "You've basically accused me of being a slag, you looked as though you were going to kill me, I had to slap you, and you think this is all about some sort of revenge on you, and you have the audacity to ask me why the hell I haven't told you before?! Ronald Weasley, you are so immature sometimes I can't even begin to comprehend you..." Her anger seemed to dissipate during her speech, so she was now calm.

Ron stared blankly. "But Snape? You chose him over someone your own age?"

"By that comment I'm assuming you mean 'why not me'?"

Ron blushed slightly, his face having almost returned to its normal colour. "Well, yeah."

"Ron, I like you as a friend. I really like you. You're funny, smart - don't give me that look - you're good at Quidditch, and although you do have one hell of a temper, you try to use it for good instead of evil..." She grinned, starting to relax.

"But, why _him_?" Ron looked puzzled.

"I don't really know...he was there for me, he understands what I went through and all that, he's intelligent, he's funny - honest - he's kind, well, to me anyway. I like him."

Ron sighed. "Well. I dunno...it all sounds dodgy to me. I mean, what if the other teachers found out? I mean, he'd be fired and all that...and what if he, you know, tried to take advantage of you?" His blush was rising up his cheeks.

"He won't get fired, hopefully. Dumbledore knows, as does Professor McGonagall... they're sort of okay about it, but one step out of line and that's it..."

Ron looked at Hermione, and saw that she looked upset. The prospect of a practically-immanent end to her relationship made Ron realise that she really did care about Severus.

"And what if Snape tries to take advantage of you? You do realise I'd have to do something..."

"_Severus_ would never do anything to hurt me. I know because...well, I just know. Okay? And I appreciate the fact that you care about me, as I care about you, but you've got to let me fight my own battles."

"Me too." Ginny piped up, thinking that this was as good a time as any to try and get her over-protective brother off her back. Harry elbowed her in the ribs and said "Well I reckon we'd better get out of your way..." He and Ginny headed up to their respective rooms under the watchful eye of Ron.

"I know you can look after yourself...look, anyway, I know this sounds random, but I'm assuming that you can't go to the ball with Sna-Severus" He shuddered. "Give me a while on the 'Severus' front, will you?"

"Well I manage it when I call out his name in the black of the night..." She raised an eyebrow and laughed as Ron's pace began to pale.

"That's not an image I need in my head, but thanks anyway..." He grinned sheepishly. "Anyway, do you want to go to the ball together? As friends?"

Hermione smiled. "I'd love to! Thanks Ron...you're a great mate..." She leaned forward and kissed his cheek, failing to notice Ron close his eyes briefly as she touched him.

She got up. "Well, I guess I'd better go to bed. I need my beauty sleep! Everything's okay then, yeah? You won't go challenging Severus to a duel or anything will you?"

Ron smiled a little. "Not unless you want me to, love." Hermione pretended to ignore the last part.

"Night."

"Night."

Ron stayed in his seat long after Hermione had gone to bed, considering what had just occurred. Still not sure about Hermione dating their potions professor, he decided to try and let Hermione live her own life, although a small part of him was hoping for the moment she would come running into his arms. But he knew that was never going to happen.

He was not happy with the prospect of having to socialise with Mr and Mrs Snape in the future, if that ever came about. _I love her...why do I always fall for the wrong ones? First Fleur and now Mione..._


	19. Let's dance!

**A Rose By Any Other Name.**

_By Kes._

**_Disclaimer:_** The usual "It's not mine and neither is AR glares at Rima Horton ;-)" restrictions upon my creative 'talents' apply.

Hermione awoke to sunlight slowly attempting to stream majestically through her thick curtains in her Head Girl room. She yawned and stretched lazily as she swung her legs over the side of her bed. Then it hit her.

Christmas!

She looked fleetingly at the window to see if any poor bedraggled owls were lying impatiently in wait for her to open the window, then realised the curtains were shut.

Blindly stumbling over everything and anything that somehow managed to find itself on the floor, Hermione managed to get over to the window and open the curtains and let out a "whoo hoo!" of triumph when she opened the window relatively unscathed.

A few owls came in and deposited envelope's and parcels on her bed, whilst she quickly conjured a plate of biscuits for the owls to eat.

Flicking impatiently through her mail, she could not find one from Severus, but found cards from Harry, Ron, and Ginny. She smiled as she read them, but was disheartened that she had not received anything from Severus.

Momentarily glad that she had sent Severus his present last night before she went to bed, but with strict instructions not to open it until today, she went into the bathroom to get washed, and so did not notice the school owl that casually flew in and deposit a letter on her bed until she came back into her room.

_Dear Hermione,_

_Do not be impatient; you shall get your present later this evening when the ball commences. I shall see you there._

_Merry Christmas._

_Severus._

_X_

An elated Hermione left her room with her old jeans and t-shirt on, and went to the Gryffindor common room.

"Merry Christmas Ginny!" Hermione yelled as she jumped down the stairs, two at a time and pounced on her friend, feeling ridiculously glad that Severus had not actually forgotten her.

Ginny smiled and hugged her back. "Merry Christmas Herm." She replied whilst handing her friend a present. Hermione smiled and turned around, whipped out her wand and levitated a pile of presents towards her. She rifled through the numerous parcels and gave one to Ginny.

"Merry Christmas." They opened the parcels, and stared. They had bought each other the same earrings. Laughing, they put them on. "Well at least we both have good taste!" Joked Ginny. "Oh god, here comes my moronic brother."

"Presents from home Weasley clan, with unofficially adopted children of Harry Potter and Hermione Granger!" Yelled Ron, as he raced into the common room with a ludicrously small wrapped box.

As Ginny, Harry and Hermione sat down, Ron enlarged the box and opened it. "Hermione, Ginny, Hey me!, and...Harry..." He said distractedly, whilst throwing the presents to their prospective owners.

They all opened their presents at the same time, to reveal a knitted Weasley jumper with their initial on it, and various chocolates. The group noticed that Fred and George had slipped in a few of their prank sweets in, as well as a Christmas note.

Hermione put her sweater on, a dark burgundy colour with an 'H' knitted on the front in Gryffindor gold. Although happy with her present, she suddenly felt very depressed.

Hermione got up silently, leaving the others unwrapping the presents she had given them, and walked round the castle and out into the cold and dark December morning.

She started to cry. "I can't believe I forgot!" She yelled angrily to herself. "This is my first Christmas without my mum, and I _forget_ about her!" She sobbed quietly to herself. "What have I become? How could I _do_ that to her?" She huddled herself into a little ball in the darkness, away from the occasional first year looking for snow, and other prying eyes.

She looked up and saw him standing there, cloak billowing away from him in the wind. He did not react to the cold. He was away from her, not seeing her at all. Alone in his world.

Her voice croaked. "Severus?" She barely whispered, but he heard her.

Slowly, he turned around and walked to her, silently he gave her his hand and lifted her up into an embrace, hearing the despair in her voice. "I forgot about her Severus. I can't believe I forgot." She said in a quiet voice.

"Shh, its all right you know. She won't mind, I'm sure of it. You love her, she knows that, you still think of her, that's all she needs to know." He held her until she stopped crying.

Hermione looked up at him. "Why are _you_ out here?"

"I like it. It's away from the Flitwick-McGonagall creation that was in some previous life, our Great Hall but is now home to a great monstrosity they _claim_ to be a 'Christmas Tree with fairies' and as for the dance floor...they closed the Hall early."

"Oh dear..."

"Exactly. Well." He sighed. "I've got to go and help them I suppose, although I guess my plans for sabotage will have to be halted this year as the Weasley twins aren't even visiting, so I can't blame them...are you going to be all right? You _are_ still going to the dance?" She nodded and sniffed. He smiled slightly, kissed her gently and was off.

A few hours later, Hermione stepped out of her room, self consciously smoothing out nonexistent creases in her dress whilst fleetingly wondering how cat hair could have appeared in her new shoes. "Do you think it looks okay?" She enquired worriedly.

The stares she received from Harry, Ron, Dean, Neville, Ginny and Lavender somehow failed to reassure her.

"You look wonderful!" Squealed Ginny, her camera flashing occasionally. Hermione blushed. "Well, the hair is a result of extensive library research and the dress - "

"Shh. Don't ruin it with the words 'library research' Mione..." Ron looked as though someone had just said 'Quidditch has been cancelled' and 'only joking' in quick succession, the shock and pleasant surprise clearly evident.

She smiled shyly. "Gee thanks Ron...shall we go?"

Ron failed to reply as he was currently staring at her. The dress was a deep burgundy colour, with a rather low neckline showing off her cleavage, thanks to Ginny's persuasion techniques ("You'll look gorgeous, honest 'Mione"). The corset-like top half of the dress was tight enough to show off the curves that she'd spent years attempting to hide (_years of hard work down the drain..._). The train of the skirt drifted to the floor, and hid her shoes so that you only caught flashes of the black heels as she walked. The spaghetti straps were the same colour as the dress, but had the occasional rose sewn into the strap. Basically, every man (and woman) thought she looked absolutely gorgeous.

"Er...yeah..." Ron was a little out of sorts, but he managed to get a grip of himself. "Hang on...didn't you say you had a top to wear or summat? But I wouldn't wear one if I were you..." He grinned at Harry. "Trust us to pick the real lookers as friends, eh mate?" He said, as Hermione left to grab her top.

Harry laughed. "I'm alright, I've got a looker on my arm as well..." He grinned and winked at Ginny, who blushed, causing her cheeks to clash with her flaming red hair and deep green velvet dress. "Even if she does look like a Slytherin!" Ginny swatted his arm and glared.

"Ready." Said Hermione. "I've got my top." She held a see-through blouse-like top up for Ron to see.

"Er..Herm? What _is_ that?" She grinned at him and put it on. It had sleeves, but looked rather like a sweater that had had the bottom half cut off.

"It's really nice, but what's the point of it?" Ron looked slightly confused.

"It was my mum's. After first year, I went shopping with her and she got this. When I came back to Hogwarts, and was legally able to do magic, I bewitched it to keep her either warm or cool, and to change colour whenever she wanted it to. Then I sent it home. It took loads of research, it was really _quite _interesting..." She faded, seeing all the baffled expressions surrounding her.

"Right...let's go." Said Ron, grinning at Hermione's self-conscious attempts to hide her intelligence. _No wonder she likes Snape...I bet he doesn't tell her to shut up when she goes off on one..._He took Hermione's arm, and made a big show to everyone who was on their way to the ball that she was his date. Even if it was just as friends.

The doors to the Great Hall were open, signifying that they were allowed in, as many couples already were. Neville and Hannah Abbott from Hufflepuff were there, dancing away - Hermione noted that Neville's dancing had improved since their fourth year. Pansy Parkinson was attempting to drag Malfoy onto the dance floor, much to the Gryffindor group's amusement.

Scanning the area, Hermione found Severus in a corner, as usual, but he had so far failed noticed her. She attempted to get his attention, but found that it was no longer necessary, as he quickly noticed her.

Or maybe he was gawping at someone else.

Hermione grinned outright, unable to contain her amusement. She then once again self-consciously smoothed out her dress.

"Would Milady-friend like to dance?" Ron held out his hand gentleman-like, and Hermione smiled. "Why yes, I believe Milady would..." They spun out onto the dance floor, quickly followed by other couples, wanting to dance to the Weird Sisters. Hermione was rather proud of the work she and Neville had put into tonight, glad that everyone was able to enjoy it. The first and second years seemed to enjoy watching the older students dance - or at least attempt to.

Hermione leaned on Ron's shoulder, and looked over at Severus. Who had a murderous glint in his eye. Aimed at Ron. _This isn't very good now, is it Hermione, eh?_ She whispered to Ron about their predicament, and Ron sighed theatrically.

"He's a bit of a possessive type isn't he?" He grinned as Hermione swatted his shoulder. He looked at her, seeing the worried expression. "Oh all right, I know, I know. I'll go and ask Lavender for a dance…she's only here with Seamus as neither of them had dates anyway…" He did a mock-bow and left Hermione, in search for Lavender. _He fancies her, oh my God…_

Hermione looked at the door, and then at Severus, hoping he would get the hint. She sauntered slowly through the gaggle of hormonal teenagers, looking more alluring to Severus with each step. She went up the stairs to the astronomy tower and breathed in deeply as the cool air touched her skin.

She walked to the edge, and closed her eyes, listening to the music of the band, which could even be heard from where she was standing.

"You look beautiful." She heard him before she saw him. Smiling, she turned around to face Severus but only saw darkness. Slowly, he began to appear. His black and grey ensemble made him look sexier than usual in Hermione's opinion, as the shirt was slightly tighter than normal, enabling her to see glimpses of muscle. Her friends had noticed too. She grinned. She had seen _those_ up close...

"I was with Ron as a friend, neither of us had dates, so we went together. Please don't go and murder Ron…" She smiled.

He smiled shyly and nodded. After a few minutes silence, he coughed nervously. "I know you're annoyed with me as you think I haven't got you anything for Christmas, but I have. I just...didn't know when to give it to you." She smiled. "I wasn't annoyed, just...slightly disappointed...but then you sent me the note."

"Well, I'm sorry. I'm no good with presents or tokens of any sort of affection as you may have guessed, but I saw this and had to get it." He handed her a small box. It was wrapped in dark red paper with green ribbon. "The paper is rather symbolic..." She said with eyebrows raised. He grinned, tension slowly leaving him. "Yes, I thought so."

She delicately unwrapped the gift and opened the box. "Oh it's beautiful!" He smiled gently. "As are you. Do you want me you help you put it on?" She nodded, eyes transfixed on the gift.

Severus slowly removed it from the box. "Turn around." She nodded and complied silently. His arms came around her head, as did a sliver of silver glistening in the moonlight. It came to rest silently on her skin. She heard him mumble silently as he fumbled with the clasp, the gently grasped her shoulders and turned her around, looking at the necklace.

"Do you like it?" He sounded apprehensive.

She felt the locket, and could feel jewels under her thumb.

"It's perfect. Thank you."

"It's been charmed to open with your touch on the main jewel. It can hold any miniaturised object. I was thinking about your wand…it may be safer to hold it in there…when you open the locket, it would come out and automatically transform to its original size."

She smiled. "Thank you so much –"

He coughed nervously. "Hermione?"

"Yes?" She looked at him, questioningly.

"I...I just want to say this before I decide not to again..."

"Again?" She smiled, puzzled. "What do you mean aga-"

"I love you."

She stared at him, wide eyed.

_Oh shit, well done Severus, she's going to go running to her friends now._ "Forget I just said that, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you-" he looked as if he were about to turn away.

She kissed him quickly on the lips to silence him. "I love you too Severus Snape."

He looked at her worriedly. "Really?" She kissed him again, longer this time. "Yes. Really."

He smiled. "Then would you like to dance milady?"

Hermione grinned, he sounded like Ron. That would disturb Severus. Later. "Of course."

They started to dance to the music, getting closer and closer, with each step until they kissed. "Merry Christmas Severus."

They heard footsteps. "Well well, isn't this _lovely_? I can see the headlines now. 'Student seduces professor'. Or should it be the other way round?"

Hermione and Severus flew apart at the sound of her voice, Hermione staring in disbelief at the woman who has had a personal grudge against her since her early teens.

Rita Skeeter, complete with outlandishly garish and totally uncoordinated robes stood in the doorway, with a notepad and a quick quill that was rapidly recording the scene.

"Just wait until the Headmaster hears about this!" She said, as she began to descend the stairs. She turned suddenly, and came back up. "Unless he already knows...would you wish to comment Professor Snape? Or should I say _mister_ Snape. I hardly assume you have a position at this school any more!"

"Albus Dumbledore knows nothing of this 'relationship' as you call it." He stated in a calm, monotonous voice. "There is nothing here, Miss Skeeter, I was consoling the student. I'm not as heartless as you think I am..."

" 'Consoling a student'? You looked like you were about to give her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation!"

"Obliviate!" Hermione's wand flashed green and aimed the light at Rita Skeeter.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Yelled Severus, staring at the momentarily unconscious middle aged witch on the floor.

Hermione stared at the reporter, her own arm still in mid air with incriminating wand attached. She wanted to cry. "Well we had to do _something_…Clearly you're 'I was just consoling her' idea was flawed on many levels...unless this is what you usually do to help the Slytherin girls."

Severus glared at Hermione, flawed, unable to say anything. She lowered her eyes. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that..."

He bristled. "Yes, well, it doesn't matter. We now have a middle-aged witch lying unconscious on the floor, on top of the astronomy tower, her memory missing, with just the two of us present...unless, of course, you count the student squad downstairs...what do we do?"

"You're the professor, you tell me!"

Severus and Hermione entered Dumbledore's office. He was already sitting behind his desk.

"Please, sit down. Tea?" This sounded wrong. There was no joviality in his tone, not even the false 'I'm glad to see you' tone he adopted when the likes of Fudge arrived unexpectedly. He was all business, no twinkle in his eye, no twitch of a smile playing about his lips. He was being serious.

"No, thank you Albus." Replied Severus as he sat down next to Hermione, who looked as apprehensive as Severus felt.

A stern nod was Albus' reply. He sighed deeply, and looked at the couple, considering.

"What were you thinking?" He looked saddened. "You know the risks of your relationship, why were you so headstrong? Why did you have to break the rules? I've allowed you le-way, allowed this relationship to continue despite the judgement of the other headmasters and headmistresses." He pointed to the portraits 'asleep' on the various walls.

He looked at them sadly and began to pace the room. "I feel as though I have made a grave miscalculation in trusting the two of you to behave maturely. You know our deal, Severus. Both of you do. You both hold positions of influence in this school, as Head Girl and as a Head of House. I'm afraid, that although I do not want to, I must ask you, for the safety, security and stability of this school, you must end this relationship. Do not argue Severus."

His tone was final, and the glint in his eye was gone. "I obviously do not wish this to occur, but considering the circumstances which have just arisen, Miss Skeeter _should _be fine, a day or so in the hospital wing with the 'flu' and she'll be as right as rain...but the fact of the matter is she shouldn't have had to be obliviated. And yes Severus, I know, she should not have been on the school grounds, but the fact is she _was_. Life is full of surprises, not all of them good, and I'm afraid that this is one of them. So please, for the sake of this school and its students, end this relationship. Put it on hold. Hogwarts has been surrounded in more controversy in the last seven years than it has in its entire life span."

He sat down, looking tired, dejected, and older than ever.


	20. WARNING: Do Not Annoy Severus Snape

**A Rose By Any Other Name.**

_By Kes._

**_Disclaimer:_** You know it, I know it, so let's just get on with the story…

"You want us to end it?" Hermione asked in disbelief. She could _not_ even consider that it was happening. "But why?" She looked puzzled, apparently not taking in any of Albus' speech. "Don't you want us to be happy?" She sounded so young and looked like she was about to cry.

Albus sighed. "Of course I do…it's just that the safety of the school and students is paramount." He looked at her sympathetically. "If the Daily Prophet or the Ministry ever found out, the school would be in danger…"

Severus muttered something incomprehensible and shifted in his chair.

Albus leaned forward. "Pardon?"

Severus looked at him darkly. "I said 'bullshit'". He kept eye contact until Albus looked away.

_When Severus actually swears instead of a sarcastic put down, it usually means he's in a lot of pain, is very tired, or exceedingly annoyed…to put it mildly. Oh dear._

Before Albus could respond, Severus began to speak in such a calm voice it disturbed him.

"All my life, I have been denied what I've wished for. First, the desire to have a normal life and a normal family. Denied to me by my own father. Then, denied the right to have a mother, again denied by the bastard who killed her, my father. Then the desire to have friends, to be liked and admired. Denied by a snot-nosed _little brat_ who thought he was better than the rest because he knew a couple of hexes and had Lily Evans eating out of his hand - aka, James Potter with followers Peter Pettigrew and Sirius Black.

All I've _ever_ wanted is to be myself, to live a so-called 'normal' life. Even when I came to you to repent my sins and _attempt_ to live again, you took that from me. You forced me - via guilt and a subconscious obligation to you – to do your bidding. Return to the Dark. Kill more people than I can remember, yet I still see their faces. For the good of the light, for the cause. You think this reasoning helps their souls rest? Well it doesn't help _mine_ either.

I have been continually denied what I want, what I _need_ to _survive_. For the good of others, for the 'many'. I've accepted that. It didn't hurt anyone but me. What was the harm, right? Only one person affected. But now you're asking me to relinquish the one person who actually likes me for me. Not because I'm useful to her, or because she fears me, but because she, hopefully, loves me. Fine. I will, once again, deny myself happiness for the good of the people who neither like me nor know me, and who, if they ever found out about my sacrifices, would not even give me a second glance." He looked at Hermione and got up. "I'm sorry my love. 'It is for the good of the many'" Beginning sincerely, and ending in a mocking tone, and now once again sincere. "I love you. I really do. More than I ever thought possible." He bent down and kissed her gently, silencing her with his kiss.

He rose swiftly, and made his way to the door. He looked at a flabbergasted Hermione and a remorseful Albus. He glared at the elderly man and opened the door and slammed it behind him, but not before saying.

"Merry _bloody_ Christmas."


	21. Severus Snape Sex Symbol

**A Rose By Any Other Name.**

_By Kes._

**_Disclaimer:_** SS and HG and everyone else do not belong to me.

There was a knock at the door.

Severus grumbled and put the brandy bottle that he had yet to open away. He stood by the door to his quarters for a few minutes; not opening it, hoping the person on the other side of the door would just go the hell away. It was New Years Eve and he wanted to get drunk and pass out to say goodbye to the year like he always did. Did this person have no respect for tradition?

Hermione was once again reminiscing about what had happened just under a week ago. _Severus left. And what did I do? Sit there. That's all I did! I mean for God's sake, I've met Voldemort, I helped kill the bloody bastard, and yet I was in shock when **Dumbledore** actually acted like a Headmaster! What the hell was wrong with me?!_ She shivered in the cold, and wrapped her cloak around her. Finally, she managed to gain the nerve to speak.

"Well are you going to open this damn door or not? I can get my wand out and blast through it you know…"

"Hermione?" Questioned Severus. He had not seen her since Dumbledore's office, though he had observed her leaving about five minutes after him. _What had they talked about? Me? Her? Us?_

He could sense Hermione rolling her eyes on the other side of the door. "No. It's Harry Potter. I wanted to give you a good night kiss, _sir_."

Severus smiled for the first time since Christmas and slowly opened the door. "Hello Herm-" He found it was rather difficult to talk when Hermione had pushed herself upon him and kissed him. _Right…if only I understood what was going on, I could enjoy this experience more._

As she finally broke the kiss, he stared at her. "What are you doing? You heard Dumbledore…" His semi-harsh tone had no effect on Hermione as Severus was grinning like a fool at the same time.

"Who gives a toss about what a world-renowned 100+ year-old wizard who defended muggle-borns like myself and others without anything in return? Right now, not me. I'm actually being headstrong _after_ thinking about it first…not very Gryffindor I know, but I'm sure it'll result in the same thing…" She was babbling in nervousness but she grinned playfully. "Besides, he doesn't know everything…does he?" She bit her lower lip, now unsure of herself after openly defying the Headmaster.

Severus sighed. "Well no…he can't…not really, I mean it's impossible. When's _he_ ever…been in love before anyway?" He was unable to look Hermione in the eye as he said the latter, not yet used to displaying emotions that he actually had.

She smiled at him, understanding how difficult it was for him to say it, and appreciating the sentiment even more. She herself was really unable to tell people how she felt, even if it was as simple as friendship. The voice of her father ridiculing her manifested itself into her head every time she attempted to voice her feelings, and so she stopped herself before she had to experience more humiliation, rejection and depression than she did at home.

That sobering thought somewhat dampened Hermione's resolve, but she was determined to carry on as she had set out. It was all going according to plan. More or less…

She smiled wickedly and leaned towards him. "Severus." She whispered seductively in his ear, tickling it slightly with her breath. "I want you to do something…"

She heard his voice crack slightly. "Anything…" He was carefully avoiding eye contact.

"Could you make love to me?" She grinned once again at the look on his face.

"Al-alright…I mean, yes… Oh, dear…are you…sure?" Hermione looked at him._ Severus Snape is stuttering. Oh my God. I've done it. I've made him crack. Why is he stuttering? Doesn't he want to?_

She saw him swallow and once again skilfully avoid eye contact. His breathing was erratic and he looked as though he was about to faint.

"What's wrong? Don't you want to?" Hermione sounded disappointed and was beginning to feel humiliated. Her father's voice was once again laughing at her.

Severus' eyes widened. "What? Oh course I do! It's just that…well, I'm not exactly used to beautiful young women throwing themselves at me, especially after someone openly dissuaded them from doing so. So, as you can-can see - " He breathed in again. "-It's a bit of a shock…" He looked at her, apprehension evident in his eyes, as if fearing her reproach and waiting for her hysterical laughter, as though all of Gryffindor house would now pounce out of the woodwork like they had so many times before in his fantasy of this moment.

Hermione took a step forward. "Severus. I _love_ you. I have for a while. I now feel ready to go to another…stage…in our relationship. However, I totally understand if you don't feel it's time yet. After all, this _is_ a relationship. We make decisions together and all that other stuff that Ricki Lake blurts out…"

He smiled and breathed in deeply. "I don't know who Ms Lake is, but right now I feel I must admit I don't really care either…" His voice went lower, to a deep kind of rumble and Hermione sighed.

"What?" He asked worriedly.

She smiled sheepishly. "Nothing…just that voice of yours…"

"Oh…alright…" Severus was embarrassed – _damn this cursed voice of mine!_ - but decided to see what would happen. "Is it when I talk like this…or like this?" He asked, consciously lowering his voice even further, making Hermione's toes curl up and loving the chill that ran down her spine.

As Hermione smiled, he leaned in and kissed her gently, a kiss full of promise and desire barely hidden beneath the surface. His right hand became engulfed in her hair as he ran it through his fingers as his other hand possessively pulled her towards him from around her waist, causing Hermione to yelp slightly in surprise at the feeling of…something…by her leg. She sighed happily.

Hermione's hand instantly went to his hair, once again obsessively feeling its silkiness and thinking to herself that she must be the only person alive who knows what Severus' hair feels like.

At the same time, her other hand carefully weaned its way down his chest, causing Severus to inhale slightly as he did every time she did that, and then underneath his loose shirt, again as before, but this time their experience was more heightened as there were no rules, no sudden stopping themselves before they lost control, no boundaries to cross except the ones they set for themselves. This was for them and only them. No one could tell them what to do.

As Hermione instinctively backed against the wall and moved so that her neck was on display, Severus groaned deeply, looked at her hungrily and began to kiss her neck fervently, causing her to shiver with barely-hidden pleasure. Briefly, she thought about the mark they would leave in the morning, but this thought was soon abandoned as she felt Severus gently massaging her breasts through her top, her nipples already peaked and visible even through her Gryffindor top.

She felt the need to do something in return for this ecstatic pleasure which she was feeling – and had to admit that Ron had never provoked such a response in her – so she roughly pulled him back up and kissed him so hard that he thought he was going to fall over. She softly pulled her leg up to graze his and saw his knees nearly buckle and she laughed lightly.

Severus reluctantly drew away, and pulled her arm gently in the way of his bedroom, carefully avoiding her legs and anything else that could provoke him in his now overly sensitive area. At her questioning look, he barely answered with a "Bed…room…now…" with something in there about "special".

Once in the bedroom, which Hermione had only seen once before, Severus lit the candles with a simple wandless "Lumos" – albeit in a rather disjointed voice, but extremely deep and erotic nevertheless.

Hermione smiled shyly, overly self-conscious due to the fact that she was about to have sex with her teacher and actually wanted to do it, and that he wanted to in return._ But what if he laughs at me? What if he thinks I'm disgusting? What if…?_

Severus saw the look on her face and walked slowly over to her, gently raised her chin and kissed her in what he hoped was a reassuring way. Waiting for her to make the first move, he once again entwined his fingers in her hair and smiled into the kiss as he felt her hands go shakily towards his shirt buttons.

She undid each one steadily, purposely making herself slow down. As she slid the shirt off him, Hermione lightly stroked her hands over his chest and smiled at his intake of breath.

Severus pushed off her Gryffindor outer robe which she wore despite it beings the holidays, and saw the light blue tank top underneath. Hesitantly, he lifted it over her head and saw her matching light blue bra.

Severus noticed that she shivered slightly as the cool air washed over her skin. He gently caressed the goose bumps that quickly covered her flesh. Carefully, he reached behind her and unhooked her bra, slowly taking it off giving her an opportunity to stop him. But she didn't.

He dropped it silently on the floor, forgotten, and stood back to admire her. He noticed that she looked more than a little scared, so he leant down and whispered seductively in her ear "You're beautiful". She smiled shyly, still unsure.

To take her mind away from the fact that she was half naked and blushing like a tomato, Hermione gently put her hand on Severus' belt. This was going past their 'above the belt' rule, although neither had ever divulged as much clothing as they had already, and so Hermione was a little apprehensive but managed to summon some of her Gryffindor bravery.

Carefully unbuckling the belt and pulling it through the trousers, Hermione dropped it on the floor. She then focused on the button and fly of his trousers. Never had they seemed so interesting. Slowly, she reached forward and undid the button and fly as Severus did the same to her jeans.

Hermione looked at Severus, to see if he was as nervous as she was. Fortunately, he seemed to be and for some reason, this gave her courage. She leaned forward, almost stepping on his toes and kissed him passionately, feeling the bulge tighten in response. She giggled and placed her hand on the fabric of his trousers.

"Oh, God! Hermione no…" She suddenly stopped, confidence gone and now paranoid.

"I'm sorry, did I hurt you?"

Severus laughed in a deep velvety voice and Hermione thought she would faint. "No, far from it…I'd just like to…er…last a little longer."

Hermione blushed at the implications of what he had just said. "Sorry."

"Hermione my dear. If you ever do that to me again, _never_ be sorry…"

She grinned. "I'll keep that in mind…do you know _all _the clichés by heart?"

He leant forward and whispered in her ear "Not all, but most" and proceeded to taste the flesh of her neck.

Hermione groaned a deep throaty moan that she had never heard herself make before and Severus became even more aroused. She grinned.

He continued to kiss her neck whilst also caressing her breasts. Hermione's eyes lit up. "Oh, please...".

Severus stopped abruptly.

His eyes darkened with fear. "That's what she said…"

"Who?" At any other time, Hermione would have felt at least a little insulted that someone else had been mentioned, but the sadness in his tone and fear that was more than evident in his eyes showed her that this was serious.

"The girl that I was forced to…had to…"

Hermione gasped, remembering what he had said about the muggle girl Malfoy had forced him to rape. She understood. "You won't hurt me Severus. I don't think you're capable of it. You did not rape that girl of your own free will."

She walked towards him, attempting to close the space he had purposely put between them.

He looked at her sadly. "I should have tried. I should have done something, I should have stopped…" He stared at her, hopeless.

"Severus." She began, gently caressing his cheek. "You couldn't have done anything. You tried your best to stop, but you couldn't. I know this sounds stupid, but you are _not to blame_. In a sense, you were abused as well as her. Malfoy used you. You have to trust me when I say this. _I love you_. I always will, nothing can change that, and I know that you love me. You wouldn't hurt me. It's not in your nature." She gently kissed his lips. "Please Severus." Tears were in her eyes. "Please believe me when I say you cannot hurt me. I love you."

She smiled weakly at him, and kissed him once again. Slowly, he joined in, and the kiss grew in intensity, but he was still unsure.

Carefully, she reached down and once again began to caress him gently through his trousers. This engaged him, he suddenly sprang into action. He ran his fingers down her spine and around her waist, taking off her jeans in the process and slipping them down to her knees. Once there, Hermione kicked them off and began to repay the favour which he had bestowed on her.

She undid the button, slowly pulled down the zip and slid her hand into his trousers, his eyes widened and he gasped in a mixture of pain and pleasure. Grinning from ear to ear, she slowly slid down Severus' trousers and watched in amusement as he hastened to remove them fully from his person. Now all that was left was their pesky underwear.

Hermione moved towards him, her hips swaying automatically, causing Severus to consciously attempt to slow his breathing. She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him passionately, not caring about boundaries any more, just wanting, needing Severus. Right now.

A deep primal growl escaped his lips as Hermione was leaning in on him, touching a very sensitive area in a very nice way. Hermione pulled away abruptly, there was fire in her eyes. She looked at him, and said "Fuck me."

My knees are going to buckle. A sexy, beautiful woman just told me to fuck her and I'm going to collapse…

He smiled at her a very sexy smile that he rarely used and Hermione was sure that if he did, he would definitely be as popular as Lockhart. Severus Snape – Sex Symbol. Well, it turned her on…

She saw his eyes darken even more with desire as he pushed her roughly on the bed._ Now this is more like it!_ He pulled down her panties, and listened to her gasp as the cold air hit her. He grinned.

Hermione's eyes went wide. _What was that?_ She looked at Severus and saw that he was touching her. Down there. _Oh my god! Ron never even **tried** to do that._ She groaned, her hips bucking upwards, attempting to push his fingers in further. He gently stroked her. The last thing Hermione felt was his tongue. Hermione shivered, she felt her pulse racing, images flitting before her eyes, Severus' tongue, his lips, his hands, his skin, oh _god_ his _voice_!…they all rolled up into one _extremely_ nice image –

Then it stopped.

She looked at him, confused. "Not yet my love. That would be _far_ too easy…"


	22. Finally!

**A rose by any other name.**

_By Kes._

**_Disclaimer:_** SS and HG et al belong to the ever-so-holy-and-ever-so-rich JK Rowling.

Hermione's eyes glowered. "What do you mean 'far too easy'?!" She growled and pushed Severus over onto his back and climbed on top of him.

I like this Hermione…Severus was grinning from ear to ear. "Now I can see why you were sorted into Gryffindor…all that bravery and impulsiveness…" 

Hermione smiled wickedly, her eyes glinting in the moonlight seeping in through the window. She bent her head down to kiss his throat, then moved downward, trailing to his nipples which she bit and rubbed to make hard, smiling with glee at the sound of his sharp, throaty, intake of breath. She then kissed and licked his chest and abdomen, tickling the light dusting of black hairs, trailing her fingers lightly, teasingly, over his muscles, feeling him shiver in anticipation. He had not said a word since she had started. Boy, did she love power.

Looking at his erect cock, she smiled in false shyness, winked at him, but then bypassed _that_ area entirely, going to his feet. She lightly licked the soles of his feet, and tickled them lightly, causing him to squirm and sit upright on the dark green covered bed.

He looked at her in what seemed like panic. "Are you _trying_ to make me go insane?" His voice was rough and so deep she thought she was going to drown. Severus pushed her backward slightly, so they were both kneeling on the bed, and kissed her so roughly, she knew she would faint soon.

"No, I just wanted to see what you would do." She giggled and blew lightly in his ear, whilst pushing his hair behind his ear, him doing the same to hers. "And I like what I see…"

He ignored her, and slowly, she felt Severus' hand trail upwards from her ear to her forehead, gently wiping away the sweat that had settled there, making her hair slightly damp and flattening it to her head. She laughed lightly. "I bet I look a right mess. I do, don't I?" She asked, not really caring what she looked like, but curious nonetheless. "You look beautiful. As always. A bit rough around the edges…" He grinned and dodged her hand, grasping it in a grip superior to hers and kissed her palm, gently pushing her back down on his bed.

She took the hint and laid down, lifting her head to capture his lips in a searing kiss. She felt him by her leg and smiled, neither feeling self-conscious any more. She motioned for him to come closer to her, and he did so. She whispered sensuously in his ear "_I_ want _you_, now. And I know that _you_ want _me_…"

Severus looked at her. "More than anything." She smiled and they kissed again, this time their hands roaming the other's body, claiming ownership, she over his obsidian locks, and he over her honey dipped curls. Their hands trailed down in unison, setting parts alight with desirous flame, until they came upon the previously 'forbidden' territory. Daringly, Severus once again pushed his finger in, watching in amazement as Hermione's eyes closed and she unquestioningly gave in to his ministrations. Just as he saw her bite her bottom lip, he stopped and kissed her to silence her protests. Hermione glared at him, but stayed silent. Keeping eye contact, she gently placed her hand on Severus' throbbing member, experimentally squeezing and releasing the pressure. After a few pleasant-sounding moans from her lover, she assumed she was doing it right. She then felt Severus instinctively thrusting into her hand. She stopped.

"Two can play at that game." She said, grinning mercilessly.

"How about a new game?" His eyebrow raised suggestively, his voice deepening to an even lower tone, one he himself had never heard before.

Hermione shivered. "What is it?"

"You'll see…" There was a slightly demented glint in his eye, but she didn't care. She felt it too.

Licking her lips in anticipation, she kissed him one last time, and lowered herself once again onto the velvet-feeling bed. Her breath coming in quick rasps now, she closed her eyes as he kissed her again. "Are you sure, Hermione?"

Opening her eyes to keep contact, she whispered "More than anything." echoing his own words. He smiled gently and a little shyly, and slowly entered her. Both gasped at this new sensation that neither had felt for a long time. She gently lifted herself up to kiss him, and inadvertently increased the delicious friction between them, causing him to harden a little more inside her. She was in heaven.

Severus began to quicken his pace, thrusting harder and faster into her, clutching onto her shoulders, and she his, as if for dear life. The pressure suddenly became too much to bear and once again, the feeling of total abandonment, of release, of joy, of love, of searing pain and pleasure encapsulated into one moment seemed to beckon them, and they both shouted the others name into the night.

He slowly moved off of Hermione onto the wider expanse of his ridiculously sized bed, so as not to hurt her. But he held onto her possessively, as if he feared she would run off in the darkness, never to be seen again. But she didn't. She hugged him closer, and they kissed a slow sensual kiss, not noticing that they were not in the sheets.

"I love you Hermione." His voice a deep rumble with tiredness.

"As I do you, Severus." She yawned, and pulled a blanket over them.

"That's nice, yawning during a declaration of love…"

Quietly, Severus placed a wandless locking charm on the door and floo-locked fireplace, so as to keep out any unwanted visitors.

She smiled sleepily and tightened her grip on him, and they both fell asleep as the clock struck midnight. A new year had begun.

**_A/N_**: I've just realised that this _entire chapter_ is basically smut. Cool. ;-)


End file.
